Women Entrepreneurship in India: Evidence from Economic Censuses

The global commitment to achieve the sustainable development goals (SDGs) by 2030 focusses on poverty, tackling inequality and injustice, setting different targets including the economic empowerment and the wellbeing of women. Central to an inclusive and sustainable industrial development is the need to harness the economic potential of women and for that entrepreneurship remains critical. The present article is contextualised against the backdrop of the SDGs and tries to address questions of women’s empowerment, agency building and wellbeing through an analysis of the entrepreneurial activities of women. To this end, the article tries to provide policy recommendations indicating that entrepreneurship is not only an economically rewarding activity but also needed to address larger questions on reducing gendered vulnerabilities across social groups and building a women’s agency for sustained labour market participation. The article is based on the secondary data largely drawn from the Economic Census and the reports of the National Sample Survey.