9 MARCH2021THE CURRENT SITUATION OF INDIA IS VERY FAST-MOVING WITH TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT, TRANSFORMATION, AND INDUSTRIALIZATIONa Bank-led initiative, enabling a trainee to take bank credit and start their own micro-enterprise. RSETI programme is currently being implemented through 585 RSETIs by 23 leading banks in both public sector and private sector as well as few rural banks in 33 states and union territories, covering 566 districts in the country. Training in RSETI is being imparted for 61 courses aligned with National Skill Qualification Framework (NSQF). Out of 61 courses as many as 38 following courses are exclusively suitable for women candidates for taking up self-employment ventures after being trained in these courses.Women Entrepreneurship Platform - The Women Entrepreneurship Platform (WEP) of NITI Aayog was launched on March 8, 2018 on the occasion of the International Women's Day as NITI Aayog's flagship initiative. WEP has pan India coverage and does not have state-specific programmes. Registration on the portal and all subsequent services are provided free of cost for WEP users. WEP caters to both aspiring and well-established women in the space of entrepreneurship.Awareness About Loan Programs - To see growth in the number of women entrepreneurs, we need to walk a long way working towards changing the mindset of society and facilitating women in availing loans to support them throughout their ventures are a few efforts to be counted that need to be ensured. Several government and non-government agencies are working towards attaining these. Start and Improve Your Business (SIYB) programme of the International Labour Organization and government's Trade Related Entrepreneurship Assistance and Development (TREAD) are few of them supporting women at various levels while starting their businesses or establishing an enterprise. Swayam Shikshan Prayog is an NGO working diligently towards uplifting rural women. Biz Sakis - trained by Disha project, a partnership between UNDP India, IKEA Foundation and India Development Foundation is also supporting women at physical and psychological levels to build their own enterprise. These efforts need to be intensified with the help of more organizational participation.Changing Mind Set Towards The Third Gender Community - India has a population of more than 500,000 transgender. They are continuously subjected to stigma and social backlash due to long-standing social prejudices, making it difficult for them to live a life of a normal productive citizen. Although they form a very insignificant slice of the general population, they represent a historically suppressed and excluded set of people and thus bringing them in the mainstream can have a transformative effect on the problem of social exclusion for other groups. Empowering the transgender community by providing livelihood opportunities and entrepreneurial support can go a long way in improving rural development as well as human development in India. Recently the Kerala government initiated an event in which various policymakers, academics, professionals and domain experts from across the globe will brainstorm about developing measures that can unleash the economic potential of women and transgender community that would empower them to become sustainable entrepreneurs. The event is known as the second edition of the International Conference on Gender Equality (ICGE). Such events, measures and steps are highly essential for the actual development of the nation.CONCLUSIONThe current situation of India is very fast-moving with technology development, transformation, and industrialization. In such situations, employment opportunity can enlarge drastically for rural women. Entrepreneurship into rural women, no hesitancy develops the wealth of the nation in general and of the family in individual. India used to be a socially male-dominated country decades ago, and women were assumed to be economically and socially dependent on male members. But now the scenario has changed, women are not just doing more work than their counterpart but are excelling at doing whatever they chose. All they need is backing and support from the family members, government, society, male colleagues and others. With the right assistance from various groups stated above, they can connect to the mainstream of national rural economy and thereby contribute to the rural economic development.
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