Innovative Training to Create Rural Women Entrepreneurs in Madurai - A Case Study

Abstract

The word ‘entrepreneur’ is derived originally from the French “entreprendre” which means an organiser of musical or other entertainment. Oxford English Dictionary also defines it as director or a manager of a public musical institution, one who ‘gets up’ entertainment, especially a musical performance. But, in 16th century, it meant to those who were engaged in military expeditions,. Later in 17th century, the terms ‘entrepreneur’ covered civil engineers. From 18th century onwards this term was used to refer to economic aspects. According to J.B., “An entrepreneur is the economic agent who unites all means of production: the land of one, the labour of another, and the capital of yet another and thus produces a product. By selling the product in the market he pays the rent of the land, wages to labour, interest on capital, and what remains is his profit”. Therefore an entrepreneur is a director who combines various factors of production to produce a socially viable product. A woman enterprise is defined as “an enterprise owned and controlled by a woman having a minimum financial interest of 51 per cent of the capital, and giving at least 51 per cent of the employment generation in the enterprise to women”. On the other side, rural entrepreneurship is defined with the term ‘rural industrialisation’. Accordingly, any industry located in a rural area, village, or town with a population of20,000 and below, and an investment of Rs.3 crore in plant and machinery is classified as a village industry”. Therefore, a rural woman entrepreneur means a woman in a village or town with a population of 20,000 and below, having a minimum financial interest of 51 per cent of the capital employed, and providing employment of at least of not less 51 per cent to women. Further, women form about half of India’s population. At this juncture there is a need to analyse the training programmes for rural woman entrepreneurs.