No Country for Women

The facts don't add up. While the government claims its creating more women entrepreneurs, data from the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) suggests the opposite.

The Interim Budget did its bit to encourage women entrepreneurs. Sourcing 3 per cent material from women owned SMEs is mandatory for the government now.

Like last year, women comprise 70 per cent of MUDRA Yojana beneficiaries getting loans for new ventures.

Data from the CMIE, however, says womens participation in the labour workforce fell dramatically after 2016. In rural India it was 14.4 per cent in end 2016, 12 per cent in 2017, and 11 per cent in 2018. The drop-outs were mostly women from the lowest end of the spectrum - informal rural workers. There's a clear contradiction in the numbers and the government needs to figure it out soon.