Government initiatives to support women owned enterprises

The Government has taken a number of initiatives to support women employees and women owned enterprises, as follows:

1. To support women entrepreneurs under Credit Guarantee Scheme for Micro and Small Enterprises, additional benefits has been given to women than to the other entrepreneurs.
2. The Pradhan Mantri Virasat Ka Samvardhan (PM VIKAS) is a flagship Scheme of the Ministry of Minority Affairs which converges five erstwhile schemes viz. ‘Seekho Aur Kamao’, ‘Nai Manzil’, ‘Nai Roshni’, ‘Hamari Dharohar’ and ‘USTTAD’; and focuses on upliftment of six notified minority communities through skill development; entrepreneurship and leadership of minority women; and education support for school dropouts.
3. Under Prime Minister Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP), which is a major credit-linked subsidy program in which the substantial beneficiaries are women who are provided higher subsidy viz-a-viz non-special category
4. Stand-Up India (SUI) Scheme has the objective to facilitate loans from Scheduled Commercial Banks (SCBs) of value between Rs. 10 lakh and Rs. 1 crore to at least one Scheduled Caste (SC) or Scheduled Tribe (ST) borrower and one women borrower per bank branch for setting up greenfield enterprise.
5. An initiative namely “Yashasvini”, was launched on 27.06.2024, which aims to campaign for women entrepreneurs and empower women by building their capacity, with a focus in Tier-II/III towns.
6. The Code on Social Security, 2020 and the Code on Wages, 2019 have provisions regarding maternity benefits to women workers and non-discrimination on grounds of gender respectively.
7. The Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 (SH Act) provides a legislative framework for prevention of sexual harassment at workplace. The Act provides for constitution of Internal Committee (IC) where the number of employees is 10 or more and also mandates for constitution of Local Committee (LC) by the District Officer notified under the Act to deal with the cases of workplaces where the number of employees is less than 10 or when the complaint is against the employer itself.
8. To facilitate working mothers in giving due care and protection to their children, ‘Palna’- a Centrally Sponsored Scheme was introduced w.e.f. 01 April 2022, for providing day care facilities and protection to children.