Enterprise Among Farm Women in India and Understanding their Constraints: An Exploration of NSSOs 55th Round Household Data

Diversification of rural women from traditional crop based agriculture to high valued agricultural, allied and processing activities with emerging prospect merit considerable attention in context of women’s empowerment and inclusive growth. While advocating enterprise, it is important to recognize that societal and developmental constraints weigh down more on women than men. This paper analyses household survey data from NSSO to study the status of entrepreneurial activities among women belonging to Indian farm households. The study identifies the industries of enterprise and investigates the profile of the enterprises and the entrepreneurs who operate them. Further, the study also examines the entrepreneurial tendencies across states and finds critical associations with various development indicators of the states.