Gone are the times when women faced lack of funds when starting a business. However, with government schemes for women entrepreneurs, women can enjoy many benefits in small, middle, and big organizations. Also, all this development and women-centric schemes are heading towards the country’s economic growth and serving as an inspiration to many other budding women entrepreneurs.

Challenges women face starting a business

It has been found by the World Economic Forum that India is now slightly improving in gender discrimination ratio, though it still ranks low as per the Global Gender Gap report, with financial status widening this gap in the field of women’s equality. Let’s look at the areas where women need a push.

Financial support

As per an IFC report published in 2022, 90 percent of women entrepreneurs in India have yet to take funds from any formal financial institution. Also, 53 percent of male business owners also lacked financial reserves during the COVID lockdown in 2020, and the number of women-led entrepreneurs increased to about 72%.

Women get credit equal to only 27 percent of deposits that they provide compared to males who get credit equal to 52 percent. This discrimination may be attributed to financial institutions not granting fair credit to women.

Family pressure

Women are expected to be the sole caretakers at home. Juggling responsibilities, they must be efficient at home and at professional front. It is high time that women start to address this and stop playing the role of a superwoman, compromising their output.

Professional networking

Another area for females is the need for more access to professional networking. As per the Google Bain survey, 49 percent of the respondents experience a lack of professional support due to restricted inclusion in informal and formal networks.

Lack of Training

A large amount of women entrepreneurs report that there needs to be more of structured knowledge, and this becomes a hindrance to their expanding powers.

Considering these challenges, the Indian Government has come out with several schemes and initiatives for women to promote female entrepreneurship. These schemes can help women support their future financial growth.

Top 5 government schemes for women entrepreneurs in India

With a lot of schemes and initiatives started by the government to support women entrepreneurs, here we present the top 5 schemes you can consider if looking forward to starting the business of your dreams-

Annapurna Scheme

The State Bank of Mysore and Bharatiya Mahila Bank offer the Annapurna Scheme to women interested in starting their food catering business. This scheme provides a loan of upto Rs 50,000. Also, this loan can be used as working capital to purchase products for operations like kitchen equipment and utensils. A guarantor and collateral in the form of an asset are required to avail of the benefits of this scheme. The best thing about this scheme is that you can quickly repay the amount in 3 years. Women who take the loan also get a month’s grace period before the actual repayment process starts. However, the interest rate depends on the rate in the market.

Udyogini Scheme

Women Development Corporation started this government scheme to offer loans to women who wish to start their small business. Under this scheme, a woman who wants to start a business categorized under 88 small scale industries can get a loan up to Rs 3 Lakh. Some of the sectors covered include tailoring, dairy, fisheries, bakeries, poultry, groceries etc. Also, apart from this, if a woman starts a business in the agricultural industry, she will be given an interest-free loan. The government also proposes to provide 30 percent subsidy on the loans to make repayment easy and affordable for women. Further, this scheme offers females training in careful business planning, feasibility, and pricing. The scheme extends help to micro industries to develop and support underprivileged women from rural areas in earning.

Stree Shakti Scheme

This was started by different branches of SBI to provide benefit to women entrepreneurs linked with EDP or Entrepreneurship Development Program run by state agency. Women with the most ownership in small businesses are eligible for this scheme. In this scheme, the women can get a 0.5 percent concession on loans that are above Rs 2 Lakhs. Also, security is not required to be deposited when the loan is up to Rs 5 Lakhs. You can take a loan of upto Rs 50 Lakhs.

Mudra Yojana Scheme

The Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana or simply the Mudra Yojana Scheme was launched in the year 2015 to help startups and entrepreneurs. This is a great initiative for women entrepreneurs and those who are willing to start small enterprises such as tailoring stations, beauty parlors or, tuitions etc.

With this scheme, loans of Rs 50,000 to Rs 50 Lakhs can be taken by women. They just have to provide guarantors and collateral if the loan amount they ask for is over Rs 10 Lakhs.

There are three plans under this scheme-

Shishu plan- This plan extends the loan up to Rs 50,000 for new entrepreneurs.

Kishor plan- This provides businesses and individuals with loans between Rs 50,000 and Rs 5 Lakhs for already established enterprises.

Tarun plan- This gives loan between Rs5 Lakhs and Rs 10 Lakhs for expanding the already established business.

What more, the Mudra scheme is also available for women on easy terms and conditions. The scheme further provides low interest rates to the women entrepreneurs, thus making it a practical option for all those looking forward to start or develop their business further.

Udyam Shakti Portal

This scheme was launched by the Ministry of MSME to promote social entrepreneurship through creating low cost products. It further assists with proper business planning, incubation, training, mentorship, market research etc. Projects with a maximum cost of Rs 25 Lakhs are eligible for this scheme, with Rs 10 Lakhs allocated for the service-based projects. The scheme’s online portal has been a guiding force in empowering women to go out and start their businesses.

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In short, taking a look at the government loan and investment schemes for women, the loans include:

• Mudra Yojana Scheme
• TREAD
• Bhartiya Mahila Bank Business Loan
• Stand Up India Scheme
• PMEGP
• Mahila Coir Yojana
• Udyam Shakti
• CGTMSE

And more.

On the other hand, some of the popular investment schemes include:

• Government Saving Bonds
• Unit Linked Insurance Plan
• Gold Monetization Scheme
• NSC i.e. National Saving Certificate
• E Kisan Vikas Patra
• Public Provident Fund
• Sukanya Samriddhi Scheme
• Mahila Samman Savings Certificate
• Employees’ Provident Fund

While it has been seen that women-owned businesses generate about 8 to 10 percent more revenue than male-owned ones of the same age and same industries, just 5 percent of women-owned businesses get venture capitalist funds compared to 77 percent of male-owned businesses. This is the gap that the Indian government is trying to close with the help of these financial schemes. Without a doubt, women are as capable as men when running a business, but the societal issues have always been huge. With the help of these women entrepreneurship programs and schemes, it is expected that the barriers will be removed and a stronger nation will be built with free market economy for both genders.

For all women, financial independence is essential. So if you wish to make your dream a reality, funding should not be a problem. The Government is thus doing its bit to help women succeed and become financially literate. These government schemes will surely help women to get the initial investment for their business and start something that they are genuinely passionate about.

FAQs

Which businesses can a woman start as a homemaker?

Here are a few business ideas that women can start:

• Yoga instructor
• Open a café
• Become a freelancer
• Start home bakery
• Tutoring
• Homemade food products
• Start a boutique

Is there any scheme for homemakers to become entrepreneurs?

The TREAD scheme has the objective to foster financial empowerment among women. With this, the government offers funding up to 30 percent of the project cost, with the remaining 70 percent being financed by other lending institutions as loans to female applicants.