Entrepreneurial Settings for the Development of Handloom Micro-entrepreneurs in North East India

Abstract

Micro-entrepreneurial development in the rural non-farm informal sector in developing countries holds a significant place due to its immense potential to generate employment, reduce poverty and income inequality. The handloom industry of India is a platform for micro-entrepreneurs, where the micro and small enterprises exercise the weaving and marketing operations with a dominant presence of the females. The present study throws some light on the entrepreneurial settings of the handloom micro-entrepreneurs across gender in North-East India. Based on the primary data collected from Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, and Meghalaya, the present study found a considerable difference in the adoption of technology and firm performance across location and gender. The results of the descriptive statistics reveal the existence of gender difference in size of operation, capital requirements, cost structure, and firms’ performance across the types of cloth produced. It is found that the growth of the female-owned micro-enterprises is constrained by insufficient resources and low valued production. Implementation of financial inclusion programs with a follow-up strategy and provision of training and better marketing facilities with major emphasis on female micro-entrepreneurs is crucial in handloom micro-entrepreneurial development.