NEW DELHI: India has made a case for economic gender justice with Prime Minister Narendra Modi telling the world to see the women-led development in the country.
In the last eight years, women entrepreneurs have come to comprise a whopping 70 per cent of the Pradhan Mantri MUDRA Yojana (PMMY) loans, signifying the ‘Atmanirbhar Nari Shakti’. This was stated by PM Modi at a post-Budget webinar on ‘Future Female Forward’, in New Delhi.
According to Union Minister for Women and Child Welfare Smriti Irani, women entrepreneurs are key stakeholders of India’s mid-sized enterprises, as reflected in the data related to MUDRA loans.
“Economies that have strongly shown resilience are ones where mid-sized enterprises are plenty”, and “MUDRA loans show that mid-sized enterprises in India are flooded with women entrepreneurs”, Irani said.
The minister also pointed out that “90 million women in India participate in economic development through 8 million self-help groups.” MUDRA is largely a credit guarantee given by the Government on behalf of the borrowers from marginalised groups, including women.
There are numerous studies that indicate that women micro-borrowers have greater financial discipline, and are often more scared to default. This is mostly because of the inherent fear of not being able to rely on formal sources of capital in the event of a rainy day due to bad credit history.
