Women Entrepreneurship in Nawalparasi District

Women Entrepreneurship in Nawalparasi District

Bishnu Prasad Lamsal

Associate Professor

Madhyabindu Multiple Campus

Ph. D. Scholar,

 Singhania University Pacheri Bari, Jhunjhunu (Raj.), India

Abstract

Women entrepreneurship in Nepal is a relatively new phenomenon, although women of some ethnic communities have a long tradition of being involved in micro cottage enterprises. Women comprise more than half of the total population in Nepal. This study investigated the condition of women entrepreneurship in Nawalparasi district. The study based on primary data gathered by use of a structured questionnaire from 17 women enterprises out of 43 women enterprises registered in Nawalpur Chamber of Commerce and Industries. The result highlights that the majority of the women entrepreneurs are facing the problem of marketing and lack of business knowledge. The results pointed out that majority of the women entrepreneurs have not participated in training; however they are involved in trading sector. Similarly, large percentages of women entrepreneurs in Nawalparasi need training, tax holiday and soft loan for better performance.

Keywords: Women entrepreneurship, Tax holiday, Soft loan, Poverty

1.   Introduction

Women entrepreneur can be defined as a woman or group of women who initiate, organize, and run a business enterprise. In terms of Schumpeterian concept of innovative entrepreneurs, women who innovate, imitate or adopt a business activity are called “women entrepreneurs”.

During the last few decades, recognition has been given to the importance of women's entrepreneurship as a prerequisite for household-level poverty alleviation, national economic development, and the empowerment of women (Mayoux 2001). The term 'entrepreneur' has been defined as anyone who 'undertakes the organization and management of an enterprise involving innovations, independence and risk, as well as the opportunity for profit. (Timmons and Spinelli 2006). Innovation enables and entrepreneur to venture into new technology, products, and markets, while independence and risk-taking is required in every stage of the business from start-up to expansion (Ming-Yen 2007).

Development of women entrepreneurs in Asian developing countries has also a tremendous potential in empowering women and transforming society in the region. Yet in many countries, especially where the level of economic development, reflected by the level of income per capita and the degree of industrialization, is still low, this potential remains largely untapped. For instance, the less than 10% of the entrepreneurs in South Asia, comprising Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, being women Sinhal (2005). Within the Asian region, more attention has been given (and hence more literature is available) to South Asia (e.g. India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh) for two main obvious facts: seriousness of poverty and socially, politically and economically suppressed women. This is also the motivation for many other women study scholars such as Das(2000), Dhameja et al. (2002), Raju (2000), Sasikumar (2000), Sharma and Dhameja (2002) who have also focused their research in this part of Asia.

The concept of entrepreneurship in Nepal is of recent origin. It is only in recent years that it has received a nation-wide attention. The concept has been developed to shift the nation's agricultural production, occupation to manufacturing occupation. Population growth and unemployed people, who are dependent on agriculture should be shifted to other areas from agriculture. For the fulfillment of this employment needs to be created in manufacturing sector which is one of the components of entrepreneurship.

In this way the history of entrepreneurship programme is very short in Nepal. The real history starts with the Industrial Service Centre (ISC) where 18 potential entrepreneurs were trained in 1975 (CEDA, 19978). Government of Nepal via the Department of Cottage and Village Industry (DCVI) initiated such types of training programme to motivate and encourage the people mostly living in rural areas, so that they could establish cottage and small-scale enterprises. Sometime in 1981/82, with the joint efforts of Bhaktapur Development Project (BDP) and DCVI, two training programmes were conducted to train ten and eighteen participants respectively. During the period, 1980 to 1983 DCVI run 38 Entrepreneurship Development Programme (EDP) training programmers in 38 districts to promote the rural economy through entrepreneurship. However, despite the increase in the number of programmes, the participation of women in the Entrepreneurship Development Programmes was very limited. Moreover there was no any women specific training programme like the women entrepreneurship development.

In context of Nawalparasi district, it lies between 26.12⁰ north to 27.47⁰north latitude and 85.25⁰ east to 86.36⁰ longitude with the area of 2,01,214 hectors. The district is situated in a height of 1936 meters from the sea level and the climate is tropical monsoon and warm temperature. The temperature can reach up to 42⁰c. in summer and in winter it reach up to 5⁰c.. Similarly, the main agriculture products of this district are rice, wheat and sugar-cane. There are 57 village development committee and 7 municipalities and also 11 VDCs are situated in Buffer Zone Area of Chitwan National Park.

Economic development cannot undervalue the contribution of women from the women productivity point of view. The major shift in national economy from the agriculture sector as well as none agriculture sector has realized the importance of entrepreneurship development especially women's status. Hence it is useful to examine women entrepreneurship development in Nawalparasi district, how far it has been successful to achieve the goal should be central theme of the present work.

2.      Objectives of the study

The major issue of this study is what is the access of women in developing entrepreneurship and what are the problems faced by them in this area. Hence, the objectives of this study is to access the women entrepreneurship development and the problem faced by them in Nawalparasi district. More specifically this research investigates the involvement of women in entrepreneurship development and their problem to serve in the current environmental condition.

3.      Research Design and Methodology

The word population is used in statistics denotes the aggregate from which the sample is to be taken. Under the population survey method, data are collected for each and every unit of the population or universe, which is the complete set of items, the interest in any particular situation. There are 43 enterprises operating and registered in Nawalpur Chamber of Commerce and Industry.  These are the population of the study. Out of them, only seventeen women enterprises will be selected as sample using judgmental basis. The primary data has been used in this study. The primary source is one that collects the data from personal interview, questionnaire and observation method and presents it in a systematic way.

4.      Analysis and findings

a)     Types of enterprises

The women entrepreneur who involved in different types of business, at Nawalparasi district they has registered their business in Nawalpur Chamber of Commerce and Industry are tabulated below:

Table 1  Types of enterprises

Description	No. of enterprise	Percent
General stores	16	37.21
Fancy	5	11.63
Cosmetic and beauty parlors	5	11.63
Stationary	4	9.30
Electrical and electronic	3	6.98
Petroleum	2	4.65
Others	8	18.60
Total	43	100

From the table 1, it can be noticed that among the total 43 enterprises operated by women entrepreneurs at Nawalparasi district, 16 women entrepreneurs have been doing general stores; it represents 37.21 percent in total enterprises. Similarly, remaining enterprises operating by different women entrepreneurs, who consist of fancy, cosmetic and beauty parlors, stationary, electrical and electronic, petroleum and others. Thus, it can be explained here that large number of women entrepreneurs are running general stores.

b)     Training Participation

Knowledge as well as skill is also the most important components of the entrepreneur to establish and to run the business smoothly. To get the knowledge about the venture training plays vital role for successful operation. The women entrepreneurs of the Nawalparasi district who have taken part in training programme demonstrate by the following table.

Table 2 Training participated by the entrepreneur

Description	No. of entrepreneurs	Percent
Participated	5	29.41
Non-participated	12	70.59
Total	17	100

As per the table 2, only 29.41% of women entrepreneurs have taken part in training programme for their skill development. Majority of the women entrepreneurs of Nawalparasi district, i.e. 70.59 percent have not got knowledge and skill through training programme.

c)      Problem faced by the owner

In context of social, cultural and economic environment of Nepalese society, women faced many problems to establish and run the business smoothly. Similarly the women entrepreneurs in Nawalparasi district have some obstacles and problems in their own way of entrepreneurship development. As per the acquired data, the related problems are presented in the following table:

Table 3 Problem faced by the owner

Description	No. of entrepreneurs	Percent
Lack of business knowledge	13	29.55
Marketing problem	14	31.82
Social, economic problem	5	11.36
Collection of fund	6	13.64
Achievement of raw materials	1	2.27
Legal problem	4	9.09
Family problem	1	2.27
Total	44	100

Table 3 presents the different kinds of problems faced by owner of the concerned entrepreneurs. There are 14 (31.82%) owners who faced marketing problem. The marketing problem is created due to lack of customer order, unhealthy competition in the competitive environment as well as lack of sufficient supply of raw materials to produce the product. Whereas 13 (29.55%) owners faced the lack of business knowledge. On the other hand, another major problem faced by entrepreneurs are collection of fund and socio-economic problem. It is concern to the insufficient available of funds for working capital as well as timely payment of operating expenses.

d)     Facility needed for better performance

Women entrepreneurs can also contribute a great extend to the nation if they have adequate knowledge and proper facilities for their entrepreneurship development. The information collected from the women entrepreneurs of the women entrepreneurs of Nawalparasi district whom need the different kinds of facilities are presented in the table 4.

Table 4 Facility needed for better performance

Facilities	No. of entrepreneurs	Percent
Soft loan	11	20.75
Training	16	30.19
Tax holiday	16	30.19
Skilled labour	10	18.87
Total	53	100

According to table 4, 16 entrepreneurs need training for the better performance of their venture. It shows that 30.19 percent entrepreneurs can shows better performance if they are trained to increase their skill and performance. Similarly, the same percentage of women entrepreneurs need tax holiday for their additional performance. If entrepreneur is provided the facility of tax holiday, they can perform well to develop their entrepreneurship. On the other hand, 11 entrepreneurs or 20.75 percent of total entrepreneurs need soft loan and 18.87 percent of total entrepreneurs need skilled labour for the better performance.

5.      Summary and Conclusion

In Nawalparasi district, most of the women entrepreneurs are involved in general stores trading-based enterprises whereas lest number of women have been involving in manufacturing enterprises. Among the total number of owner, only 5 or 29.41 percent owners had taken part in training to develop their skill and knowledge.

The women entrepreneurs of Nawalparasi district have faced many problems to run the business smoothly. Among the different problems most of the entrepreneurs have faced marketing problem and lack of business knowledge. So that it reflects an important considerable thing is that if they are provided to do their business without these problems, they can do better activities in the field of entrepreneurship so that it really contributes a lot to the interest of society and the nation. Despite those problems, they have problems to solve i.e. collection of fund, socio-economic, legal problem.

The entrepreneurs of Nawalparasi district are not running business facing the different problems but also insufficient facilities available them. If they are provided necessary facilities to promote their profession, they can perform effectively and efficiently. As a result current male entrepreneurs and potential male entrepreneurs have to learn from the women entrepreneurs. For this, to promote it is essential training, tax holiday and soft loan are the vital facility, which is needed to the women entrepreneurs. If the facility of soft loan is provided to them, they can update their enterprise in terms of productivity and effectiveness.

To promote women entrepreneurs, they have to provide many facilities not only from the government institution but also from the social and family. They have to be provided support, courage and arrange co-ordination in terms of economic strength, social status, firms' infrastructure, and environment, has to provide low interest rate loan even zero percent, arrange training facility for untrained and potential entrepreneurs. On the other hand, the government has to take necessary steps to promote women entrepreneur in marketing sector, economic sector as well as management of enterprises and to develop the skill of the existing and potential women entrepreneurs.

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