Women’s Economic Participation in India: The Contribution of MSME, Mudra, and SHG Initiatives

Abstract

The economic involvement of women continues to be at the core of the discourse of inclusive development, women household welfare and gender equity. The increase in Female Labour Force Participation rate in India over the last few years has occurred in the context of a growing ecosystem of financial inclusion, collective mobilisation and micro-enterprise support, which is being offered to women. This paper looks at how three major aspects of that ecosystem such as microcredit that is being given to women, the development of Self-Help Groups (SHGs) and the rising number of women-owned MSMEs are in line with national FLFPR trends. The analysis, based on annual data and Pearson correlations and bivariate log-linear regressions, which are suitable in cases with small samples of macro time-series, shows that there are significant correlations between all the variables. SHG expansion is the highly elastic one among them, preceded by women-owned MSMEs and MUDRA lending. These results resonate with some historically established arguments within the frameworks of empowerment and capabilities, which emphasises the absolutely joint significance of financial access, social networks, and development of the enterprise in the formation of the economic activity of women. The research also provides more general time-series information in a research area that has historically featured micro-level evaluations, and emphasises the importance of future studies to understand job quality, industry variation, and the causal relationships in more detail with more detailed data.