11 October 2022
New Delhi: The MSME Ministry is taking a multi-pronged approach to enhance the share of MSMEs owned by women entrepreneurs in the MSME sector, said Ishita Ganguli Tripathy, Additional Development Commissioner, Office of DC-MSME, Ministry of MSME. Speaking on the sidelines of the SME Artha event organised by FE Aspire recently, Tripathy noted the 18 per cent share of women MSMEs in over 1 crore MSMEs registered on the Udyam registration portal.
The approach will be a multi-pronged one in increasing women MSMEs. We have already taken that up. For instance, the Samarth initiative was launched in March this year. We are also having vendor development programmes under public procurement, under PMSS (procurement and marketing support scheme) etc. Also, we have taken up a focused approach for Udyam registration to create awareness among women entrepreneurs,” said Tripathy.
On the occasion of International Women’s Day 2022 in March, MSME Minister Narayan Rane had launched the Special Entrepreneurship Promotion Drive for Women (SAMARTH). The scheme offers support including skill development, exhibition participation, discount in processing fees on NSIC’s commercial schemes, etc.
The government had earlier also reported growth in the number of women beneficiaries across major government schemes from the pre-Covid period. According to the data shared by Minister of State for MSMEs Bhanu Pratap Singh Verma in Lok Sabha in July this year, under the employment generation scheme Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP), the total women beneficiary count in FY22 stood at 39,154, up 43 per cent from 27,285 in FY21 and 58 per cent from 24,720 in FY20.
Similarly, under the Public Procurement Policy, which mandates a minimum 3 per cent annual procurement by government departments and public enterprises from women-led units, the women beneficiary count jumped a whopping 180 per cent from 3,666 in FY20 to 10,287 in FY22 and 105 per cent from 5,013 beneficiaries in FY21. Moreover, the Entrepreneurship Skill Development Programme (ESDP) also recorded an increase in women entrepreneurs supported to 24,734 in FY22 from 13,640 in FY21.
