Women
Empowerment through Women Entrepreneurship: A study on Beauty-Parlors run by
women at Tezpur Town of Sonitpur District, Assam
Dr. Manoj Kumar Hazarika
Department of Commerce
Ms. Daisy Rani Kalita
Department of Economics
Darrang College, Tezpur
Contact No. 96134 18906
“Convinced that the full and
complete development of a country, the welfare of the world and the cause of
peace require the maximum participation of women on equal terms with men in all
fields.”
---- Preamble to Convention on
the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, 1979 (UN-CEDAW)
Abstract:
Women empowerment and women
entrepreneurship are closely associated with each other. Empowerment generally
refers to the process of improving the quality of life and economic wellbeing
of women by eliminating gender inequality. According to the Census of India
2011, women constitute nearly 50 percent of population, perform two-thirds of
the work and produce 50 percent of food commodities of our country. But they
earn one-thirds of remuneration and own only 10 percent of property or wealth
of the country and still dominated by male in the society. A nation can be
built when it is women are given ample opportunities to develop
themselves. It is generally speaking
that one tells the condition of a nation by looking at the status of its women.
Women entrepreneurship becomes to be the best alternative for women empowerment
due to lack of guaranteed employment. It provides women to take initiative,
organize and operate a business or industry and to take various decisions
independently and also provide employment opportunities to others. It is a
catalytic process by which resources can be mobilized and put them into
effective use. Development of women develops the family, society and hence the
nation. In this study, we have selected ‘Beauty-Parlor’ which is a most popular
enterprise run by women at Tezpur town. We have selected 30 samples for the
study i.e. nearly 30 percent of the population to analyze various aspects of
the women entrepreneurship. This paper tries to give a brief idea about the
importance of entrepreneurship, its influences on the empowerment of women and
also constrains of women entrepreneurship with measures to overcome them.
Key-words: Women empowerment, women
entrepreneurship, micro-enterprises and beauty parlor.
1. Introduction:
“Convinced that the full and
complete development of a country, the welfare of the world and the cause of peace
require the maximum participation of women on equal terms with men in all
fields.”
---- Preamble to
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women,
1979 (UN-CEDAW)
Economic
development is the prime and inevitable goal of every nation but it is not an
easy task. It can be achieved only if all human resources are being fully
utilized at optimum level. This implies that both men and women must
participate to achieve that goal. Women constitute about half of the population
all most in all nations and therefore it is not possible to attain fullest
development with one part of the available human resource of any nation. On the other hand, women participation in the
development work is important from the point of their empowerment. Empowerment
generally refers to the process of improving the quality of life and economic
wellbeing of women by eliminating gender inequality.
a. Women
Empowerment and Entrepreneur:
The concept and
philosophical basis of “Women Empowerment” in social policy is of recent
origin, but the meaning, theme and the struggle are not new for the society. Women empowerment was first brought at the
International Women’s Conference in 1985 in Nairobi. The conference concluded
that empowerment is a redistribution of power and control of resources in
favour of women through positive intervention. The Programme of Action 1992
gave comprehensively parameters like enhance self-esteem and self-confidence,
health, education, economic independences etc. for empowerment of women. It is
generally speaking that one tells the condition of a nation by looking at the
status of its women. According to the Census of India 2011, women constitute
nearly 50 percent of population, perform two-thirds of the work and produce 50
percent of food commodities of our country. But they earn one-thirds of
remuneration and own only 10 percent of property or wealth of the country and
still dominated by male in the society. Economic dependence upon males is the
one of the main reason for the exploitation of the females. Therefore ‘women’s economic empowerment’
becomes extremely important to provide equal rights in various field of day to
life of a woman. All women have some unrecognized skills which can be easily
transformed in to earning sources.
Women economic
empowerment and women entrepreneurship are closely associated with each other.
Due to lack of guaranteed employment in our nation women entrepreneurship
becomes to be the best alternative for economic empowerment of a woman. Entrepreneurship is the propensity of
mind to take calculated risk with confidence to achieve a pre-determined
business or industrial objective. In substance, it is the risk-taking ability
of the individual, broadly coupled with correct decision-making. Women’s
entrepreneurship needs to be studies separately due to two reasons. The first
is that women’s entrepreneurship has been recognized as an important untapped
source of economic growth during the last decade. Secondly, the topic women in
entrepreneurship have been largely neglected both in society and in social
science studies. Women entrepreneur may be defined as a woman or group of
women who initiate, organize and run a business enterprise. Government of India
has defined women entrepreneur as, “an enterprise owned and controlled by women
having a minimum financial interest of 51 percent of capital and employing
atleast 51 percent women. According to S.S. Khanka, “A woman entrepreneur is a
confident, innovative and creative woman capable of achieving economic independence
individually or in collaborating generates employment opportunities for others
through initiating establishing and running an enterprise by keeping pace with
her personal, family and social life.” And in the words of J. Schumpeter,
“Women who innovate or adopt business activity are called women entrepreneurs”.
Women constitute the backbone of a nation, development of women develops the
family, society and hence the nation.
b. Present
Scenario of Women Entrepreneurs:
The concept of
‘Women Entrepreneurship’ is becoming global phenomenon and in India it became
prominent in the later half of the eighties. Before independence, women were satisfied just with three
K’s- Kitchen, Kids and Knitting and then extended to kitchen activities
i.e. the 3 Ps, viz, Pickles, Powder and Pappad. With the spread of education
and awareness, women entrepreneurs have shifted from the extended kitchen
activities 3 Ps’ to the higher level of activities i.e. 3 Es, viz. Engineering,
Electronics and Energy. Similarly in Assam women are mostly engaged with
household activities but there are tremendous scope of earning inside the four
walls for the women in Assam. Because some activities where women are generally
engaged in Assam such as baking Laddu
& Pitha (Traditional Biscuits), Pickle etc. which are belonged to Food
Processing, Cutting Embroidery, making japi (Traditional head cap) & toy,
carpet, weaving, beauty parlor etc.
Table No. 1.1
Work Participation Rate in India
Period
|
Female
|
Male
|
1971
|
14.2
|
51.2
|
1981
|
19.7
|
52.6
|
1991
|
22.3
|
51.6
|
2001
|
25.7
|
51.9
|
2011
|
25.5
|
53.3
|
Sources:
Census of India, Govt. of India
The Table No:
2.1 shown the work participation rate in India from 1971 to 2011 as per Census
data. Though the participation rate is increasing in every decades but it is
still below in comparison to the men.
Figure No. 1.1
Work Participation Rate in India
c. Micro Enterprises -Beauty Parlors:
Micro enterprises are those
enterprise, where total investments are not more than Rs.25 lakhs in case of
manufacturing sector and not more than Rs.10 lakhs in case of service sector In accordance with the provision of Micro,
Small & Medium Enterprises Development (MSMED) Act, 2006 . These enterprises are based on locally available
resources more particularly in the rural and semi-urban areas, which are
employment potential at low capital cost. Low income group of the society is
mainly associated with this type of enterprises because it can be started with
a minimum capital.
Beauty
parlor is a micro service enterprise, which recently becomes popular among the
women. In India, this enterprise became
famous and growing from 1990s with fashion industry. India won the crown of
Miss Universe and Miss World at that time, which helped to grow up these
enterprises. A beauty parlor can be
started with minimum investment by acquiring a short period of training such as
3 months to 6 months training. The Government of India also provided various
scheme like PMEGP, MSE-CDP, RGMVP to start such enterprises. A beauty parlor
is an establishment dealing mainly with cosmetic treatments for men and women.
It is also known as beauty salon, beauty shop or spas. There is a distinction between a beauty salon and a hair salon and although many small
businesses do offer both sets of treatments; beauty salons provide more
generalized services related to skin health, facial aesthetic, foot care, nail
manicures, aromatherapy, — even meditation, oxygen therapy, mud baths, and many
other services. It is proven as a recession-proof and most growing enterprise
in America. The US Labour Department estimated that total employment was
increase by 20 percent with greatest employment opportunities for the skin care
specialists during 2008-2014.
d. Objectives of the study:
The study was conducted on women
entrepreneurs who are running beauty parlors at Tezpur town with following
objectives:
(i)
To
study socio-economic status of women entrepreneurs;
(ii)
To
study the attitude of family and society towards women entrepreneurs;
(iii)
To
examine the employment opportunities offered by the Beauty Parlors.
(iv)
To
identify the problems faced by the women entrepreneurs;
e. Methodology:
The study is empirical in nature and
based on primary and secondary data. The
primary data were collected through sample survey. The primary data were
obtained by applying both schedules and questionnaire methods from the
respondents. Schedules will be filled up by the researcher to observe the depth
of the study. Parameters like social status, educational qualification,
training etc of the owners and earning, production, marketing etc of the
enterprises are included in the schedules.
The secondary data were collected
from Books, Research Papers, Articles in the Net & Newspapers, E- Journals
and official websites of various agencies to establish the authenticity of the
study.
(i)
Coverage: The study covered entire
municipality areas of Tezpur Town including Mazgaon & Ketekibari.
(ii) Period
of the study:
The study was conducted for month of October 2014.
(iii) Sampling
Method: Non-probability Judgment sampling method is used in collecting data
for the study, since sampling frame is not known.
(iv) Sample
Size: Total
number of 30 units is selected as sample size for the study. As per the
sampling frame of DIC Tezpur, Assam, it is around 30 percent of the total
population size of the study.
(v)
Data Interpretation &
Analysis: The
collected data were classified, interpreted and analyzed by using various
statistical tools and computer software like MS-Excel, SPSS.
2. Interpretation
& Analysis OF DATA & Findings:
Table
No.:2.1
Age
of the Women Entrepreneurs
|
||||
Age
Group
|
No.
of Entrepreneur
|
Percentage
|
||
0 - 20 years
|
00
|
00
|
||
21 – 40 years
|
17
|
57
|
||
41-60 years
|
13
|
43
|
||
60 years & Above
|
0
|
00
|
||
Total:
|
30
|
100
|
||
Interpretation:
Table No.2.1
shows that there is no single entrepreneur between 0-20 years in this sector,
57 percent are engaged in the age group of 21-40 years and remaining 43
percent from 41-60 age group.
Figure
No.: 2.1
Age
of the Women Entrepreneurs
Table
No.:2.2
Marital Status of Women Entrepreneurs
|
||||
Parameters
|
No.
of Entrepreneur
|
Percentage
|
||
Married
|
20
|
67
|
||
Unmarried
|
09
|
30
|
||
Widow
|
01
|
3
|
||
Total:
|
30
|
100
|
||
Interpretation:
Table No.2.2
shows that 67 percent of women entrepreneurs are married and 30 percent is unmarried
and only 3 percent is widow.
|
||||
Table
No.:2.3
Educational
Qualification of Women Entrepreneurs
|
||||||||||||||
Parameters
|
No.
of Entrepreneur
|
Percentage
|
||||||||||||
Below HSLC
|
00
|
00
|
||||||||||||
HSCL Passed
|
01
|
03
|
||||||||||||
HS Passed
|
15
|
50
|
||||||||||||
Graduate
|
14
|
47
|
||||||||||||
PG
|
00
|
00
|
||||||||||||
Total:
|
30
|
100
|
||||||||||||
Interpretation:
Table No.2.3
shows that 3 percent women entrepreneurs are HSCL passed and 50 percent is HS
passed and 47 percent is Graduate.
Table
No.:2.4
Location of the Enterprise
Interpretation:
Table No.2.4
show that 23 percent beauty parlors are established in home and 77 percent
are outside the home.
Table
No.: 2.5
Motivational Factors for Pursuing the
Enterprise
|
||||||||||||||
Parameters
(for morethan
one choice)
|
No.
of Entrepreneurs
|
Percentage
|
||||||||||||
Family
|
22
|
33
|
||||||||||||
Friend
|
00
|
00
|
||||||||||||
Govt. Scheme
|
00
|
00
|
||||||||||||
Potential Demand
|
01
|
02
|
||||||||||||
Own Interest
|
30
|
45
|
||||||||||||
Unemployment
|
05
|
08
|
||||||||||||
Training
|
08
|
12
|
||||||||||||
Total
|
66
|
100
|
||||||||||||
Interpretation:
Table No.2.5
show that 33 percent entrepreneurs are motivated to start their business by the
family members, potential demand motivated only 2 percent, own interest to
start an enterprise is 45 percent, 8 percent started due to unemployment and 12
percent entrepreneurs are motivated after taking trainings.
Figure
No.: 2.2
Motivational Factors for Pursuing the
Enterprise
|
|||||||||||||||||
Table
No.: 2.6
Source of Finance
|
|||||||||||||||||
Parameters
|
No.
of Beauty Parlor
|
Percentage
|
|||||||||||||||
Own Capital
|
25
|
83
|
|||||||||||||||
Loan
|
00
|
00
|
|||||||||||||||
Both (Own Capital + Loan)
|
05
|
17
|
|||||||||||||||
Total:
|
30
|
100
|
|||||||||||||||
Interpretation:
Table No.: 2.6
shows that 83 percent women entrepreneurs started their enterprises by their
own capital and only 17 percent taken loan.
Table
No. 2.7
Employment
Interpretation:
Table No.: 2.7
shows that 83 percent are self
employed by their enterprises and 17 percent enterprises provided employment
for others.
Table
No.:2.8
Monthly Earning of the Enterprises
|
|||||||||||||||||
Parameters
|
No.
of Beauty Parlor
|
Percentage
|
|||||||||||||||
Lessthan Rs. 5,000/-
|
05
|
17
|
|||||||||||||||
Rs.5,001/- to Rs.10,000/-
|
17
|
57
|
|||||||||||||||
Rs.10,001/- to Rs.15,000/-
|
06
|
20
|
|||||||||||||||
Rs.15,001/- to Rs.20,000/-
|
02
|
06
|
|||||||||||||||
Above Rs. 20,000/-
|
00
|
00
|
|||||||||||||||
Total:
|
30
|
100
|
|||||||||||||||
Interpretation:
Table No.: 2.8
shows that monthly earning of 17 percent enterprises are less than Rs.5,000/-
, 57 percent earned between Rs.5,001/- to Rs.10,000/-, 20 percent earned
Rs.10,001 to Rs. 15,000/- and 6 percent earned between Rs.15,001 to Rs. 20,000/-
per month.
Figure
No.:2.3
Monthly
Earning of the Enterprises
|
|||||||||||||||||
Table
No.: 2.9
Problem
Faced by the Women Entrepreneurs
|
||
Parameters
(for morethan
one choice)
|
No.
of Beauty Parlor
|
Percentage
|
Shyness
|
00
|
00
|
Dependency
|
06
|
10
|
Lack of Confidence
|
11
|
18
|
Lack of Knowledge
|
02
|
03
|
Domestic works
|
05
|
09
|
Security
|
01
|
02
|
Financial
|
09
|
16
|
Marketing
|
23
|
40
|
Products
|
00
|
00
|
Equipments
|
00
|
00
|
NOTA
|
01
|
02
|
Total:
|
58
|
100
|
Interpretation:
Table No.: 2.9
shows that 10 percent entrepreneurs are dependent, 18 percent have lack of
confident on their enterprises, 3 percent suffered from lack of knowledge, 9
percent have problem of domestic works, 2 percent have security problem, 16
percent have problem of finance, 40 percent faced the problem marketing and 2
percent have problem of equipments.
Figure
No.: 2.4
Problem
Faced by the Women Entrepreneurs
3. Main Findings:
(i)
From
the analysis of primary data, it was found that the majority of women entrepreneurs
engaged in beauty parlor were married ( 67 percent), middle age i.e. 21-40
years (57 percent) with good educational qualification ( 50 percent HS passed
& 47 percent Graduate) and their annual average earning is Rs. 1,14,000 (average monthly
earning Rs. 9,500).
(ii)
From
the study it is observed that women entrepreneurs were motivated to start their
enterprises by their own interest (45 percent), business family back ground (41
percent) and family support (33 percent).
(iii) The study revealed that women entrepreneurs,
specially those who engaged in Beauty Parlor in Tezpur town faced problems like
marketing due to heavy competition (40
percent) followed by lack of self confidence (18 percent), and also financial
problem (16 percent) due to unequal women’s property rights.
(iv) Out of the 30 samples of Beauty parlors at
Tezpur town, only 5 parlors (17 percent) could provide employment opportunities
to others along with self. But it has been proved that it can provide
self-employment (100 percent) with a good monthly income.
(v)
Most
of the parlors i.e. 77 percent established their enterprise outside, which may
create to solve the problem of domestic
works due distinct work of place. And 23 percent among the them are home-based.
(vi) The study also revealed that majority of
parlors had started without taking loan or loan under any Government scheme
i.e. out of 30 samples of women entrepreneurs, 25 enterprises (83 percent) had
started with their own fund. Only 5 (17
percent) women entrepreneurs started their enterprise by taking loan.
4. Problems of women Entrepreneurs in India:
Women entrepreneurs face many
problems and constraint to establish an enterprise in India. There are some
common inherited problems associated with the women entrepreneurs in India as
well as in Assam.
(i)
Lack of Self-confidence: Due to differential
socialization of social norms, morals in the family; women face lack of
confidence, support, decision making powers needed for the growth of the enterprise.
(ii)
Problem of Finance: Women entrepreneurs always
suffer from inadequate financial recourses and working capital. They are not
able to afford external finance due to absence of tangible security and credit
in the market. Women have a very less property and bank balance to their name.
Male members of the family do not want to invest their capital in the business
run by women due to lack of confidence in their ability to run venture
successfully.
(iii) Problem
of Marketing:
Women entrepreneurs often depend upon the middlemen for marketing their
products who pocket large chunk of profit. The middlemen exploit the women
entrepreneurs. Women entrepreneurs also find it difficult to capture the market
and make their products popular.
(iv) Competition: Many of the women enterprises
have imperfect organizational setup, which creates serve competition among the
women entrepreneurs.
(v)
Domestic Work Load: Women entrepreneurs have to
play a dual role. As wife and mother women are generally unable to manage the
enterprise effectively because of lack of time, concentration and overburdened
personal obligation.
(vi) Less
Risk Bearing Capacity:
Women in India lives secure and protected life in family. Decision making power
related to business activities is less due to economic dependent and domination
of male headed society.
(vii) Social
Attitudes: The
biggest problem of a woman entrepreneur is the social attitude and the
constraints in which she has to live and work. Despite constitutional equality,
there is discrimination against women. They are still looked upon as “obla”
i.e. weak in all respect.
5. Suggestions for the Growth of Women Entrepreneurs
in India:
The following measures may be
adopted to solve the problem faced by the women entrepreneurs in India.
(i)
Training Facilities: Trainings and skills are
essential for the development of entrepreneurship. Training and skill
development should be designed in such a way that women can take full
advantage. Women have the potentiality and will power to establish and manage enterprises
of their own but they needs only encouragement and support from the family as
well as government.
(ii)
Finance
cells: A large
number of various finance cells may be open to provide easy finance to women
entrepreneurs. These special cells should provide finance to women
entrepreneurs at low and concessional rates of interest and on easy repayment
facilities. Even these finance cells should manned by women officers and
clerks. Efforts should be made to provide finance at the local level.
(iii)
Marketing
Co-operatives: Marketing
co-operatives should be established to encourage and assist to women
entrepreneurs. Government should give preference to women entrepreneurs while
purchasing their requirements. These marketing cooperating will help the women
entrepreneurs to sell their products on remunerative prices. This will help in
eliminating the middlemen.
(iv)
Education
and Awareness:
It is necessary to change negative social attitude towards women. Unless the
social attitudes are made positive, the development and progress cannot be
attained by the women entrepreneurs.
(v)
Equal Property Right: Equal share in the parental
property access to private capital and create self confidence to take risk of
liabilities.
6.
Conclusion:
Women
entrepreneurs face many problems and constraint to establish an enterprise in
India. The greatest deterrent to women entrepreneurs
is that they are women. A kind of patriarchal i.e. male dominant social
order is the building block to them in their way towards business success. Male
members think it a big risk financing the ventures run by women. .
According to a report by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization
(UNIDO), "despite evidence that women's loan repayment rates are higher
than men's, women still face more difficulties in obtaining credit," often
due to discriminatory attitudes of banks and informal lending groups (UNIDO,
1995b).
To achieve
complete economic development, both the human resources, viz men and women, of
the nation should be properly utilized. Therefore, women should not be
neglected by any nation. Women entrepreneurship provides economic empowerment
to women. It is a catalytic process by
which resources can be mobilize and put them into effective uses. It also provides
women to take initiative, organize and operate a business or industry. It helps
women to take various decisions independently. On the other hand Women’s economic empowerment requires to provide more
and better jobs, a secure business climate that supports them to start and run
the business, a financial sector that gives to financial services to fulfill
their needs. Securing women’s land rights has a direct impact on their
financial capability. ‘United Nations Development Programme’ also initiated women’s economic
empowerment by advocating implementation of
women’s legal rights to property and to participate in decision-making
form. Beauty parlor or beauty shop industry may become most profitable and
employment generating industry in India in the near future likes America, since
people become more beauty conscious in India now-a-days.
7. References:
Books:
1.
Dr.
Desai Vasant, “Small-Scale Industries and Entrepreneurship”, published by
Himalaya Publishing House Pvt. Ltd. Mumbai, 2010;
2.
Kumar
Hajira & Varghese Jaimon “Women's Empowerment, Issues, Challenges, and
Strategies” , published by Regency Publication, New Delhi, 2005;
3.
Goel
Aruna, “Women Empowerment: Myth or Reality”, published
by Deep & Deep Publication Pvt. Ltd, New Delhi, 2009;
4.
Kumar
Pankaj and Sharma P.N. , ‘Women Entrepreneurship’ the topic entitled “
Development of Women Entrepreneurs In India: with special reference to Bihar’
by, published by Deep & Deep Publications Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi, 2009;
5.
Dr.
Gupta C.B. & Dr. Khanka S.S., ‘Entrepreneurship and Small Business
Management’, published by Sultan Chand & Sons, New Delhi, 2009;
6.
Dr.
Mathu Anuradha & Dr. Pandeya Rameshwari, “ Gender and Development in India:
The Indian Scenario, published by Kalpaz Publication, Satyawati nagar, Delhi,
2008;
Research
Papers:
7.
Pattu
S. Meenakshi, Subrahmanyam Venkata C.V. , Dr. Ravichandram K.,
“Entrepreneurship as a Tool for the Empowerment of Rural Women in India”,
published in IOSR Journal of humanities and Social Science, Vol-13, Issue-5,
Jul-Aug 2013;
8.
Dr.
Sharma Ajay, Due Sapna & Hatwal Vinod,
“Micro Enterprise Development and Rural Women Entrepreneurship: Way for
Economic Empowerment” published in “ Art
Prabhand: A Journal of Economics and Management, Vol;1, Issue-6, Sept. 2012;
9.
Prof.
Kumar Dileep M. Women Entrepreneurs in India by URL:http://www.indianmba.com/Faculty_column/FC293/fc293.html
10. Goyel Meena & Prakash Joy,
“Women Entrepreneurship in India- Problem and Prospects’, published in ZENITH,
International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research, Vol-1, Issue-5 Sept. 2011
Websites:
11. GSB British Council Partner Zone,
URL: http://www.theguardian.com/british-council-partner-zone/empowering-women-social-entrepreneurs-india
12. UNDP (United Nations Development
Programme ) URL:http://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/ourwork/povertyreduction/focus_areas/focus_gender_and_poverty/women_s_economicempowerment/
[Published
in a Journal “Focus: A Journal of research Articles” in Vol. I, Issue:1 Dec. 2016 [ISSN No. 2456-3846]
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