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Bhubaneswar, August 30: Entrepreneurship empowers women, and empowering women empowers the society; this point was reaffirmed at a workshop for successful rural women entrepreneurs organised by Odisha Khadi and Village Industries Board (OKVIB) here Tuesday.
As many as 131 successful women entrepreneurs from 10 districts — Mayurbhanj, Balasore, Bhadrak, Jajpur, Cuttack, Kendrapara, Jagatsinghpur, Khurdha, Puri and Nayagarh — participated in the workshop.
At an interactive session, a group of about 50 entrepreneurs, raised the various problems they were facing with OKVIB officials and were assured that these would be addressed at the earliest. Similar workshops are to be organised in 20 districts of the state.
LN Gupta, the principal secretary of MSME, was chief guest at the inaugural function. “We will discuss the problems women entrepreneurs are facing with nationalised banks and encourage them to finance more village industries run by women in rural areas.”
He pointed out that women entrepreneurs involved in food processing needed proper guidance and advised that they should be regularly invited to the food parks at Deras and Rayagada. “This will help them learn what more they need to develop as entrepreneurs to provide quality products,” Gupta said.
He added that MSME department will also support women entrepreneurs interested in expanding their business and that they can take help from Land Bank created by the government in different districts. “We are also planning to create a Data Bank for women entrepreneurs of village industries so that we can keep all the records of their business and their development,” he said.
Tejaswar Parida, the president of KVIB, said the objective of the workshop was to empower women entrepreneurs of the state. “Through generation of self employment avenues, women entrepreneurs will help create employment opportunities in villages. The workshop has helped different stakeholders involved in understanding the problems that women micro entrepreneurs in the state are facing. To solve their problems we need to organise them into a group,” he said.
Further, he averred that women were good at management and so could be best entrepreneurs. “We must encourage them to become entrepreneurs rather than being confined to the four walls of their house,” Parida said.
He also dissected the problems that women entrepreneurs were facing. “Women entrepreneurs are not getting support from nationalised banks. They also face problems in marketing their products as villages are poor markets for such products. Another problem is that they lack the equipment needed to provide better packaging that can attract buyers. Women entrepreneurs require greater incentives and support from all sectors so that they can develop and ensure quality products,” he said.
Tejaswar also highlighted the need to improve marketing avenues for products made in village industries and suggested remedies. “An exclusive marketing exhibition for the women village industries entrepreneurs ‘Mahila Mela’ can be organised just as ‘Adivasi Mela’ in Bhubaneswar in November-December this year,” he said.
According to the KVIB president, a team of representatives of the bord was to visit different village industries and identify the problems they are facing and the opportunities they can explore. “We will encourage and support women entrepreneurs and follow up the development of these units for at least the next 10 years after financing them,” he said.
In September, the KVIB also proposes to organise a one-day workshop for tea stall owners of different districts, in which tea companies, OMFED and others will also be invited to participate. “Tea stall owners need to be encouraged to use earthen cups instead of plastic ones. We are planning to train them to be good entrepreneurs and to create greater employment opportunities in rural areas. Tea stall owners along highways and near tourist destinations will be encouraged to participate,” Tejaswar said.
PM Joglekar, the director of Khadi Commission; Prahallad Singh, a gandhian; Professor Santosh Tripathy of Utkal University; Arundhati Swain, the chairperson of Women’s Wing of OASME; Pradeep Gardia, the secretary of Khadi Gramodyog Board and Vallery Rath, the AGM of Indian Bank attended the workshop.
