Problems of women entrepreneurs in Andhra Pradesh

Women have been ill treated in a vast majority of the countries in the world including India from the ancient times. The predominant and pervading patriarchal system created disadvantages for women in every sphere and at all the stages of life and they are treated as secondary citizens in the society. According to estimates, women constitute 50% of the total population and contribute more than 50% to the GDP growth, although it cannot be tabulated as many of them work in the unorganized sector and are unregistered. There are also several other schemes of the government like the Income Generating Scheme, implemented by the Department of Women and Child Development, which provides assistance for setting up training-cumincome generating activities for needy women to make them economically independent. The Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) has been implementing two special schemes for women namely Mahila Udyam Nidhi which is an exclusive scheme for providing equity to women entrepreneurs and the Mahila Vikas Nidhi which offers developmental assistance for pursuit of income generating activities to women. The SIDBI has also taken initiative to set up an informal channel for credit needs on soft terms giving special emphasis to women. Over and above this, SIDBI also provides training for credit utilisation as also credit delivery skills for the executives of voluntary organisations working for women. Grant for setting up a production unit is also available under Socio-Economic Programme of Central Social Welfare Board. The main objective of the paper is to analyse the problems and constrains of the women entrepreneurs in general and government programs for women entrepreneurs in Andhra Pradesh. The paper based on the secondary data, related women entrepreneurs and government programs in Andhra Pradesh.