Women Entrepreneurship among Minorities in India (Published)
Economic development of a nation encompassed by different types of activities, again the economic development will not take place spontaneously. A special human force is needed; the person who is offering the driving force to execute the process of economic development is entrepreneur. From the available source, it can be traced that Schumpeter (1951) underscored that the French economist Richard Cantillon, was the first who introduce the concept “entrepreneur” in his famous work published in 1755. The world-famous economist Schumpeter (1967) rightly remarked that economic development consists of “employing resources in a different way is doing a new combination in means of production”, in fact, entrepreneurs are acting as a hero in the production process. The role of entrepreneur in an economy is to create an environment which is conducive to the optimum utilization of the available resources such as money, man power or material. The emergence of women entrepreneurs and their contribution to the national economy is quite visible in India. The number of women entrepreneurs has grown over a period of time, especially in the 1990s. Women entrepreneurs need to be lauded for their increased utilization of modern technology, increased investments, finding a niche in the export market, creating a sizeable employment for others, and setting the trend for other women entrepreneurs in the organized sector. According to government reports, Muslim women are among the poorest, educationally disenfranchised, economically vulnerable, politically marginalized group in the country. In 1983, the Gopal Singh Committee instituted by the government, declared Muslims as a “backward” community in India. A central feature of this “backwardness” is their exceedingly poor socio-economic status, particularly of Muslim women. Most Muslim women remain “invisible” workers in the informal economy. The minority Muslim community was specifically targeted as historically, they have been one of the most backward, poor and marginalized communities in India. Hence, the present study is an attempt to assess the entrepreneurship development among Muslim community in Chennai city. As this study is focusing on only the Muslim community, it is displayed the existing entrepreneurial spirit among this community, nature of their business and available support system particularly in Chennai city. The present study conducted in Chennai city particularly places where Muslim women are involving in the entrepreneurial activities. In order to execute this research, both the primary and secondary data has been used. Secondary data have been collected from the published reports and materials while primary data have been collected from 300 sample respondents from simple random sampling method. The analysis of data collected has been carried out by using simple frequencies and percentages for multiple responses as well as weighted averages scores has been collected and use of factor analysis and chi-square been made to draw the inferences from the study. The data were analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. Major variables in this study include, socio-economic variables, factor influenced to become as an entrepreneur, nature of entrepreneurial activity, size of investment, total members employed, value of output, marketing and problems faced by Muslim women entrepreneurs in Chennai city, India.
Keywords: Muslim minorities, socio-economic attributes., women entrepreneurship