Street Entrepreneurship among Tribal Women - Insights from Mizoram

Abstract

Women entrepreneurs play a significant role in the street markets of the tribal state of Mizoram. Street entrepreneurship has always been subsumed under the realm of informal economy and, till recent times, ignored and disdained. However, in refutation of the early views on informal entrepreneurship as simply a residue or leftover from an earlier mode of production and as a disappearing phenomenon, research studies in recent times have depicted them as entrepreneurs possessing entrepreneurial attributes, traits and qualities This paper is based on a study conducted in Thakthing street market, in Aizawl where about 450 street entreprenurs sell vegetables in the Saturday ‘Zing’ Bazaar. Entrepreneurship is largely a socio-economic phenomenon, as entrepreneurs are embedded in socio economic systems such as caste, education, religion, income, age, which mould their entrepreneurial attitudes. This paper attempts to study the social framework of the entrepreneurs, viz. tribal origin, religion, caste, gender, family structure, family size, educational qualifications and marital status of the street entrepreneurs in Thakthing market.