A STUDY ON WOMEN ENTREPRENEURSHIP THROUGH SELF HELP GROUPS IN ANDHRA PRADESH
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Date
2018
Authors
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Publisher
Acharya N.G. Ranga Agricultural University
Abstract
‘Woman’ is the key for success of any human being because of their
excellent qualities such as hard-working nature, patience, cordial affiliation,
convincing capacity, communication etc., in handling multifaceted activities. On
the other hand women in rural areas are comparatively less educated,
economically poor, confined to limited geographical boundaries and live under
rigid structural constraints. Entrepreneurship is one of the prospective options to
uplift rural women by generating self employment opportunities. The concept of
Self Help Group (SHG) acts as a driving force for the rural women with the
ultimate objective of converting household women as enterprising women and
encouraging them to enter into entrepreneurial activities. But the rate of success
is an issue to be thoroughly analysed to assess the performance and to identify
the scope for strengthening the role of SHGs towards upliftment of rural women.
So, it is necessary to study the status of women entrepreneurship achieved
through SHGs followed by the entrepreneurial behaviour and profile characteristics
of women entrepreneurs. Further, it is also mandatory to have an inventory of
various types and scales of enterprises being run by the women entrepreneurs,
their constraints in operating the enterprises so as to develop a strategy to
improve the entrepreneurial culture among the rural women of SHGs.
Ex post facto research design was followed in the present investigation.
The investigation was carried out in three districts selected each from three
regions viz., Chittoor (from Rayalaseema region), East Godavari (from Coastal
region) and Srikakulam (from North Coastal region) were purposively selected
based on the highest number of SHGs. Four mandals from each district, two
villages from each mandal and one hamlet from each village were purposively
selected based on the highest number of SHGs thus making a total of 12
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mandals, 24 villages and 24 hamlets respectively. From each hamlet ten women
entrepreneurs were selected from all the existing SHGs in that hamlet, by using
simple random sampling procedure thus making a total of 240 women
entrepreneurs as the sample of the study. The data were collected by personal
interview method through a structured interview schedule and analyzed by
employing suitable statistical methods. Seventeen independent variables and
entrepreneurial behaviour as the dependent variable were identified for the study.
The status of SHGs in terms of women entrepreneurship was assessed,
out of 1,103 SHGs nearly two-fifth (38.53%) of the SHGs were having 11 to 15
years of existence and only 2.63 per cent of SHGs had more than 20 years of
existence. More than two-fifth (43.79%) of the SHGs had savings of ` 50,001 –
` 1,00,000 and only 3.9 per cent with more than ` 2,00,000 savings. More than
one-fourth (27.83%) of the SHGs have taken a loan amount of ` 10,00,001 –
` 15,00,000 and only 4.08 per cent with more than ` 25,00,000. Nearly two-third
(60.60%) of the SHG members converted as women entrepreneurs and the
remaining 39.4 per cent of the members have used SHG amount for other
purposes. The ‘savings’ of the SHGs and ‘loan amount received’ by the SHGs
have positively significant association with the ‘number of years of existence’ of
SHGs.
The results of the study shown that majority of the women entrepreneurs
were in middle age, illiterates and completed high school education, medium
level of experience in SHG, annual income, social participation, mass media
exposure, extension contact, not received the training, medium level of
innovativeness, decision making ability, achievement motivation, value orientation,
management orientation, economic orientation, scientific orientation, risk
orientation and credit orientation.
A scale was constructed to measure the entrepreneurial behaviour of women
entrepreneurs. Two-third (65.83%) of the women entrepreneurs were with
neutral to highly unfavourable entrepreneurial behaviour. Only one-third (34.17%)
of the women entrepreneurs had moderate to high entrepreneurial behaviour.
About 63 types of enterprises being run by 240 entrepreneurs depending
upon availability of natural resources and demand in the local area coming to a
total of 286 enterprises. Provision shop (16.08%) was the main choice of the
respondents, followed by Tailoring (13.29%), Dairy (6.99%), equal (4.55%)
percentage with Small hotel/Tiffin centre and Sarees and dress materials/ Cloth
business and Fancy shop (4.20%). One-third (33.22%) of the SHG members
running the enterprise with an income range of ` 50,001-1,00,000. Only 0.70 per
cent of the SHG members running the enterprise with an income range of
` 5,00,001 and above. More than half (56.99%) of the enterprises being run by
the SHG women entrepreneurs were the primary sources of income for their
family. There was a significant association between the types of enterprises and
scale of enterprise.
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Correlation analysis revealed that education, annual income, social
participation, mass media exposure, extension contact, training received,
innovativeness, decision making ability, achievement motivation, value
orientation, management orientation, economic orientation, scientific orientation,
risk orientation and credit orientation had a positively significant relationship
with the entrepreneurial behaviour of women entrepreneurs at 0.01 level of
significance. The variable ‘experience in SHG’ was non significantly related
with the entrepreneurial behaviour of women entrepreneurs, whereas age was
negatively non significant with the entrepreneurial behaviour of women entrepreneurs.
Multiple Linear Regression Analysis revealed that out of the 17 selected
independent variables, mass media exposure, training received, decision making
ability, management orientation and credit orientation had positively and
significantly contributed to the most of the variation in entrepreneurial behaviour
of SHG women entrepreneurs.
Manifest changes through SHGs among women entrepreneurs will
indicates the significant changes occurred among women entrepreneurs in the
selected components viz., annual income, productive working days, monthly
saving, monthly expenditure, debit status, employment generation, prevalence of
bonded labour, dependency on local informal money lenders, social status, type
of house, domestic assets, mode of transport, skills in paraprofessional work,
awareness about institutional financial transactions, composition of diet, priority
for children education, social recognition, communication network, access to
credit and livestock assets after joining in SHG.
The current entrepreneurial status viz., net income from the enterprise,
employment generation, monthly saving, monthly expenditure, social recognition
and skill in paraprofessional work were significantly associated with the
entrepreneurial behaviour of women entrepreneurs. Whereas, debit status was non
significantly associated with the entrepreneurial behaviour of women entrepreneurs.
Three case studies of successful SHG women entrepreneurs were documented.
The study highlights that, the prominent constraints expressed by women
entrepreneurs, regarding personal and socio-psychological constraints, ‘Male
dominance’; In case of financial constraints, ‘Inadequacy SHG loan amounts’; In
case of technological constraints, ‘Lack of entrepreneurial training opportunities’;
Regarding marketing constraints, ‘Stiff competition’, In case of infrastructure
constraints, ‘Inadequate space & building’ were perceived as the major constraints
by the majority of the women entrepreneurs.
A suitable strategy was designed with seven steps, starting from
‘identification of potential women entrepreneurs from SHGs’ to ‘converting
them as brand ambassadors for women entrepreneurship’. All the seven steps
were integrated in such a way that each step will have a synergistic effect over
the further steps. Critical events to be taken up in each step were clearly depicted
starting from A to Z in such a way that the strategy would be more comprehensive
covering all the dimensions of women entrepreneurship through SHGs.
Description
D5692
Keywords
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