Sustainable Livelihoods through Women Entrepreneurial Activities: Prospects and Challenges

Abstract

Ensuring sustainable livelihoods is a key move to improve the socio-economic conditions of the rural marginalised sections. During the recent economic shifts, the national governments have prioritised maximum utilisation of labour force and accordingly various laws have been introduced in order to compete with global markets and to promote sustainable livelihoods within the domestic markets and social functioning. As part of this in India, an obvious step is to ensure economic development of the poor through the promotion of income-generating activities. Having recognized such a need by the Government of India, the rural banks are being entrusted with the responsibility to provide sustainable credit to the rural people to accelerate their livelihood opportunities. In this context, Self-Help Groups (SHGs), through SHG-Bank Linkage Programme, have become instrumental in developing and empowering poor women economically by lending credit facilities through banks and creating various entrepreneurial activities in rural areas. Particularly in the state of Andhra Pradesh, the SHG movement has been playing a pivotal role by brining a radical change in the position of women from that of daily-wage laborer to self-employed entrepreneur. Simultaneously, Micro-Finance Institutions (MFIs) also play a vital role in remote areas where rural banks do not exist in lending credit to the poorest sections without any delay and with a simple procedure.

However, this phenomenon has witnessed several social repercussions. For instance, the exorbitant interest rates charged by some MFIs have resulted in extreme social and economic disasters where in several attempts borrowers have committed suicides due to their failure to repay the loans and immediate inhuman approaches adopted by the MFIs. In this context, the issues of sustainability of women's economic development and poverty alleviation come under critical scrutiny. Against this backdrop, the research paper provides some of the important observations from the field survey carried out in Karimnagar district of Andhra Pradesh.  It examines the possibilities and potentialities of SHGs and MFIs to emerge as institutions of rural entrepreneurship and promoting women as a rural entrepreneur. Further, it critically examines the functioning of both the models and suggests a way forward.