Register with us

Business Readiness Scorecard for Women

August, 2020

Globally, women are over-represented in the informal economy and own only around 25 per cent of formal sector businesses. Within the handicraft and handloom sectors, there are more women in the home-based industry than in the registered small-scale or cottage units. Given the prominent place this sector holds in offering livelihood opportunities to women while leveraging their traditional skillsets, this study examines women’s economic independence through a sectoral lens in the states of Rajasthan (private-sector dominated) and Tamil Nadu (public sector dominated). Gauging business readiness of women-led enterprises in the informal sector by assessing their performance is key to enable policy support in terms of identifying best practices, creating market linkages, and targeting skilling initiatives. Mapping readiness can assist policymakers and other stakeholders in assessing enterprise readiness, and identifying areas that need to be prioritised. Similarly, such frameworks can help enterprises and policymakers assess and identify market gaps to prioritise interventions. To this effect, the Business Readiness Scorecard for Women-Handloom and Handicrafts Sector (WBRS-HHS) is a data-driven diagnostic tool, which attempts to identify key constraints and high-performance areas for home-based enterprises in the handloom and handicrafts sectors of India. The WBRS tool was developed as a result of data collected from 800 home-based women entrepreneurs in four districts each, in Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu.

Resource Type Learning note

Topics Gender, childcare, SHGs, digitisation ,