Promoting Livelihood Security throughWomen Entrepreneurship: Opportunities and Challenges

Abstract

In India, despite recent economic growth at the national level, the problem of livelihood security remains a foremost concern for policy makers. Though the agricultural sector in India was the backbone of the nation’s economy in the early years of post independence, its significant contribution to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has been undergoing a major crisis since 1990s. Scholarly literature notices that lack of access to institutional/farm credit, lack of innovative approach to agricultural development, steep increase in the prices of fertilizer, decline in investment, high indebtedness, imperfect market conditions etc. have become major hurdles in ensuring adequate livelihood security. In extreme conditions, they are even deprived of the basic necessities like access to food that led to the increasing spate of suicides by them. In these circumstances, recently, Self-Help Groups (SHGs) have become a vehicle of development to empower poor rural women economically by lending credit facilities through rural banks and promoting various livelihood opportunities in the rural areas. Simultaneously,Micro-Finance Institutions (MFIs) also play a vital role in the rural areas where the rural banks do not exist; and lending credit to the poorest sections without any delay and with a simple procedure. Against this backdrop, the paper explores the potential opportunities of SHGs in Andhra Pradesh to emerge as an institution of rural entrepreneurship and to promote livelihood security and economic empowerment through rural entrepreneurial activities. In addition to this, it also critically examines the role of MFIs in promoting livelihood opportunities and making women as self-employed entrepreneurs in the rural areas.