Importance and challenges of women entrepreneurship – A case study of Sonitpur district of Assam

Abstract

Entrepreneurship is a major strategy for economic development of a country. An entrepreneur is an important constituent of the development process and an integral part of the socioeconomic transformation process. As such entrepreneurship is a purposeful pursuit towards initiating, promoting, innovating and mainstreaming economic activities for production and distribution of wealth. Development of a society requires full participation of all section of population including women. Entrepreneurship development among women can be considered a possible approach to economic empowerment of women. A women entrepreneur is economically more powerful than as a mere worker because ownership not only confers controls over assets but also give her the freedom to take decision. This will uplift her social status significantly. Though Indian women are playing important role in society, but their entrepreneurial activities are yet to be explored. Government (at central and state) has undertaken various policies during the fiveyear plan periods for the development of women entrepreneurship. Consequently, there has been considerable development of women entrepreneurship in Assam. But the field of women entrepreneurship in Assam is full of problems. This paper has given emphasis on prospects and challenges of women entrepreneurship in Tezpur town of Sonitpur district of Assam. The population of the study consists of registered and unregistered women entrepreneurs. A sample of 50 women entrepreneurs are selected for the study on the basis of random sampling. This paper has to explore the hidden prospects of women entrepreneurship and also forwarded some suggestions in improvement of women entrepreneurship in Tezpur.