SME Times News Bureau | 24 Jan, 2020
Ahead of Budget 2020 on February 1 women entrepreneurs have called for
measures to empower women financially and promote gender sentisation in the
upcoming budget.
According to consultants and leading women entrepreneurs, more schemes and
allocations should be made towards empowering more and more women.
Nirupama Subramanian, a consultant in the area of leadership development and
personal transformation, said: "Budget 2019-2020 was supposed to be a
woman-friendly budget with an allocation of 4.91 per cent towards projects and
schemes for women.... The Nirbhaya Fund and schemes like MUDRA, Ujjwala Yojana,
Saubhagya and finance for Self Help Groups are steps in the right direction yet
much more needs to be done."
Further, direct measures should include provisions to incentivise women to
return to work after maternity leave and the government should also increase
increasing tax breaks for women-run businesses and incentives for companies
that contract to women-owned businesses will support women entrepreneurs, she
said.
"This budget needs to focus on both long term and short-term and direct
and indirect measures to ensure safety, well-being, education, and employment
of women. I would like to see funding for gender sensitisation programs in all
schools and colleges, for the police and public service workers,"
Subramanian said.
Apart from creating a conducive environment for women of all strata of society
it is equally important for them to be financially stable, said several women
entrepreneurs.
Large number of women from low-income groups work in the micro, small, and
medium enterprises and there is demand for more steps to strengthen that
segment which would eventually help the economic growth of the participating
and working women.
Anuradha Singh, CEO of Delhi-based Indi Collage, says that she looks forward to
the "funds of fund" for the MSME sector and observed that the budget
needs to address the economic downturn which has severely affected the small
enterprises and businesses where a significant part of the workforce is women.
"The tax structure needs to be much simpler, to be able to do business
across the states. Textiles and craft sector has been severely hit by the
economic downturn & the taxes levied on it, this needs to be addressed or
we will turn our skilled craftsmen into labourers," Singh said.