subject: existing status of tribal women headed entrepreneurial units [print this page] Existing Status of Tribal Women Headed Entrepreneurial Units
Shishirkala* and Savita Singal**
Abstract
This study was planned to assess the existing working condition of tribal women headed entrepreneurial units. It was carried out in tribal dominated place namely Ranchi district in Southern part of Bihar failling presently in Jharkhand State. A well structured interview schedule was constructed keeping in view the objective of investigation. Data were collected through administering of final questionnaire personally by interviewing all the twenty selected entrepreneurs.
Findings of the study indicated that majority of respondents had adequate working space (BPUs 100%, SUs-75%, MPUs, DUs- 50% each and PMUs-25%) and 50 per cent respondents of MPUs, SUs and PMUs had work place attached to their house, which reflects the small size of their entrepreneurial units. Majority of them were found to be practising at their household level. Ventilation facility was observed to be "somewhat adequate" in the entrepreneurial units of majority of respondents (65%) which need to be improved for providing healthy environment to the entrepreneurs. Toilet facility was also found to be not available either within or near their work place. It was revealing to note that there was no provision of leave in any of the selected units, which must be provided to increase the efficiency of the workers of entrepreneurial units.
Introduction
Maximum utilization of land caused shortage of space resulting in low land man ratio which in turn affect the employment opportunity. People are inclining towards the self employment activities and adopting entrepreneurial activities for maintaining their livelihood. In the study area, it was observed that some of the women are practising different types of income generating activities. Infact, the efforts of the Government and other voluntary agencies have pushed the tribals to adopt entrepreneurial activities. As a result, women who have adopted Christianity are running many traditional cottage and small scale industries such as mushroom production, handicrafts, pickle making, dairying, lac churi making, leaf cup plate making etc. They were also found to have lack of proper place, finance and other facilities required for running a business. Even though they are running different entrepreneurial activities at small scale and contributing to their family income. But these contributions are not recognised in their society which may be due to the fact they are practising a quite small entrepreneurial units, which affects the productivity/returns of their enterprise. Soetan (1997) highlighted that majority of Nigerian women, entrepreneurs micro-enterprises are too ______________________________________________________________________
* Assistant Professor (FRM),College of Home Science, RAU, Pusa (Bihar) Samastipur-848125
** Dean, I.C. College of Home Science, CCS HAU, Hisar-125004, Haryana
small to come within the Government's recommended size categorises and so they do not qualify for official assistance. Thus it was revealed that if the Government and other voluntary agencies provide cooperation to these entrepreneurs at various stages, they can increase the returns of their enterprise. Moreover, the database is also lacking regarding the existing facilities available to the tribal women entrepreneurs and these achievement oriented women are being quite neglected. Hence, keeping these facts in mind the present study was undertaken with the following objective
To know the existing facilities available to the tribal women entrepreneurs.
Methodology
Ranchi district was purposively selected for conducting the study. Five most commonly practised enterprises were selected purposively i.e. mushroom production units (MPUs), pickle making units (PMUs), Dairy units (DUs), Stitching Units (SUs) and Beautyparlour units (BPUs). Further four units from each selected enterprise were selected randomly using snowball technique. Thus a total of 20 entrepreneurial units comprised the sample. The tribal women entrepreneurs of all the 20 units were taken as respondent. Data were collected through interview schedule with the help of case study method. Adequacy of work place, space alongwith other facilities was judged on the basis of requirement of work place, space and other facilities for their entrepreneurial units. Frequencies and percentages were applied to study the existing work facilities of different entrepreneurial units.
Result and Discussion
To study the existing work place facilities, information was collected under various work place facilities and discussed as below :
Work place
Perusal of Table 1 revealed that 50 per cent respondents had work place attached to their house which was also observed in case of MPUs, SUs and PMUs (50% each). Whereas cent percent respondents of DUs had animal shed attached to their house. This may affect the health of the entrepreneur's family member, which need attention. In case of BPU, cent percent respondents were running their units in shop, which were away from their house. The overall data indicated that 35 per cent entrepreneurs had work place away from their house. Only 15 per cent were working within their house. Only 15 per cent were working at their house. Sharma (1997) reported that the women entrepreneurs lacked proper work place for their entrepreneurial work.
Working space
Majority of respondents (60%) were having adequate space which indicate the size of their entrepreneurial unit. Work space was found to be "somewhat adequate" for remaining 40 per cent of the respondents. The work space was found to be adequate in all the four units of BPU followed by the units (Sus-75%, MPUs and DUs-50% each, PMUs-25%) which had adequate space.
Artificial lighting
As many as 70 per cent of the respondents had adequate arrangement of artificial lighting at their work space as they were using electricity for lighting purpose. This was followed by 30 per cent of respondents, who do not have sufficient lighting facility. Further, out of all the selected enterprises, cent percent units of SU & BPU had adequate arrangement of lighting at all the four working units. The adequate arrangement of lighting was also observed in different enterprises (DUs-75%, MPUs-50% and PMUs 25%) which in case of PMUs (75%) and in BPUs cent percent respondents had adequate facilities of artificial lighting.
Ventilation
It was revealing to note that only 15 per cent of respondents were working in properly ventilated work places, while 65 per cent of respondents had ventilation which was somewhat adequate and 20 per cent units had inadequate ventilation. The maximum units had poor ventilation which might be due to the fact that they are practising the entrepreneurial activities at their household level. This may affect the working efficiency of woman entrepreneurs and thus it needs proper training and financial help.
Toilet
Only 20 per cent of respondents had toilet facility within their workplace, while the remaining respondents had toilet facility either near their workplace (60%) or had to go far away for toilet (20%). Regarding various enterprises, toilet facilities was available near the work place in maximum units (MPUs & SUs-75%), followed by 50 per cent cases in PMUs, DUs and BPUs, whereas 50 per cent units of pickle making and dairy, toilet facility was not available either within or near the workplace. This facility should be provided for the women entrepreneurs to increase their work efficiency.
Tools
The overall data related to availability of tools showed that as high as a 85 per cent of respondents had adequate number of tools in their units as the entrepreneurs were getting financial help for purchasing the tools required for their work. Cent per cent respondents from SUs, PMUs and BPUs, had adequate number of tools, whereas adequate tools were also available for 75 per cent respondents of DUs and 50 per cent entrepreneurs of mushroom production.
Machinery/Equipment or animals
Nearly 60 per cent respondents had adequate machinery in their units and 25 per cent respondents had inadequate machinery/ equipment or animals. Almost different units of SU (100%), DU and BPU (75% each) had adequate number of machinery/animals. Whereas in mushroom production a large majority of units (75%) did not have adequate number of machinery.
Furniture
Nearly 50 per cent units were having adequate number of furniture followed by majority of units (PMUs-100%, SUs-75%, MPU & DU-50% each) which did not have adequate furniture. Cent per cent units of beautyparlour had adequate furniture.
Services
Services were observed in terms of availability of tea at the units. As many as in 90 per cent of units employees had tea facility at their units. Unitwise results revealed that cent percent employees of mushroom production, dairy and beautyparlour units were getting tea at their work places. Further, 75 per cent units each of SUs and PMUs had tea facility during working hours.
There was no provision of leave in any of the selected units which must be provided to increase the efficiency of the worker.
Conclusion
It was concluded that majority of respondents (60%) had adequate' working space (BPUs-100%, SUs-75%, MPUs-DUs-50% each and PMUs-25%). This finding indicates that the respondents were having sufficient working space reflecting the small size of their units as they were running units at their household level. Further it needs expansion for increasing benefits of their units. Ventilation facility was found to be "some what adequate" in the entrepreneurial units of majority of respondents (65%) which also need to be improved. More than fifty per cent entrepreneurs had toilet facility within their work place only. 45 per cent of respondents had sufficient furniture of entrepreneurial works. Thus the findings of the study clearly point out that for increasing the monetary benefits of enterprise, the entrepreneurs need to have expansion of their enterprise alongwith appropriate facilities like ventilation, toilet facility etc. available to them, which must be provided through the cooperation of the Government/NGOs and other voluntary agencies to increase the efficiency of the entrepreneurs. So that women can be motivated to adopt such entrepreneurial activities to increase their family income.
References
Sharma, R. (1997). Economic feasibility of Establishing a small scale fruit and vegetable processing unit, M.Sc. Thesis, CCS, Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar.
Soetan, F. (1997). Entrepreneurship and Nigerian women - Is there any meeting point, Department of Economics of obafeni Awolowo University, Tle-Ife. Nigeria, small Enterprise Development. 8 (1) : 41-44.
Table 1. Existing work place facilities of entrepreneurial units
(n = 20)
Sl. No.
Particulars
MPU
SU
PMU
DU
BPU
Total
1.
Working place
Within the house
1 (25.00)
-
2 (50.00)
-
-
3 (15.00)
Attached to the house
2 (50.00)
2 (50.00)
2 (50.00)
4 (100.00)
-
10 (50.00)
Away from house
1 (25.00)
2 (50.00)
-
-
4 (100.00)
7 (35.00)
2.
Working space
Adequate
2 (50.00)
3 (75.00)
1 (25.00)
2 (50.00)
4 (100.00)
12 (60.00)
Somewhat adequate
2 (50.00)
1 (25.00)
3 (75.00)
2 (50.00)
-
8 (40.00)
Not adequate
-
-
-
-
-
-
3.
Artificial lighting
Adequate
2 (50.00)
4 (100.00)
1 (25.00)
3 (75.00)
4 (100.00)
14 (70.00)
Somewhat adequate
2 (50.00)
-
3 (75.00)
1 (25.00)
-
6 (30.00)
Not adequate
-
-
-
-
-
4.
Ventilation
Adequate
-
1 (25.00)
-
-
2 (50.00)
3 (15.00)
Somewhat adequate
3 (75.00)
3 (75.00)
2 (50.00)
3 (75.00)
2 (50.00)
13 (65.00)
Not adequate
1 (25.00)
-
2 (50.00)
1 (25.00)
-
4 (20.00)
5.
Toilet facilities
Within the workplace
1 (25.00)
1 (25.00)
-
-
2 (50.00)
4 (20.00)
Near work place
3 (75.00)
3 (75.00)
2 (50.00)
2 (50.00)
2 (50.00)
12 (60.00)
Not available
-
-
2 (50.00)
2 (50.00)
-
4 (20.00)
Contd..Table 1
Sl. No.
Particulars
MPU
SU
PMU
DU
BPU
Total
6.
Tools
Adequate
2 (50.00)
4 (100.00)
4 (100.00)
3 (75.00)
4 (100.00)
17 (85.00)
Somewhat adequate
2 (50.00)
-
-
1 (25.00)
-
3 (15.00)
Not adequate
-
-
-
-
-
-
7.
Machinery/Equipment or animals
Adequate
1 (25.00)
4 (100.00)
NA
3 (75.00)
3 (75.00)
11 (55.00)
Somewhat adequate
3 (75.00)
-
NA
1 (25.00)
1 (25.00)
5 (25.00)
Not adequate
-
-
-
-
-
8.
Furniture
Adequate
2 (50.00)
1 (25.00)
-
2 (50.00)
4 (100.00)
9 (45.00)
Somewhat adequate
2 (50.00)
3 (75.00)
4 (100.00)
2 (50.00)
-
11 (55.00)
Not adequate
-
-
-
-
-
-
9.
Services
Tea
Yes
4 (100.00)
3 (75.00)
3 (75.00)
4 (100.00)
4 (100.00)
18 (90.00)
No
-
1 (25.00)
1 (25.00)
-
-
2 (10.00)
Figures in parentheses indicate percentages
existing status of tribal women headed entrepreneurial units
