Women in Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal have set up maximum entrepreneurial projects under the Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP), a credit-linked subsidy scheme implemented since 2008-09.

Women in these three States have together started 36,018 micro enterprises and have generated employment in rural and urban areas. About 30 per cent of the 1,38,516 projects set up under PMEGP are owned by women, according to the Ministry of Small Scale Industries.

Scheme objectives

The Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises through Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) implements PMEGP and the maximum cost of the project is ₹25 lakh for manufacturing sector units and ₹10 lakh for service sector units.

The scheme is aimed at generating self-employment opportunities through the establishment of micro-enterprises in the non-farm sector by helping traditional artisans and unemployed youth in rural and urban areas.

Along with the top three States, Assam is the only State where more than 10, 000 women entrepreneurs have joined the venture. Four States – Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Jammu & Kashmir, and Kerala – have over 6,000 women entrepreneurs each.

More than 5,000 women from Gujarat, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar have joined the league. Interestingly, only 413 women in national capital New Delhi have shown interest in the scheme.

Incentives to women

Under the scheme, women entrepreneurs are covered under Special Category and are entitled to 25 per cent and 35 per cent subsidy for the project set up in urban and rural areas, respectively. For women beneficiaries, own contribution is only 5 per cent of the project cost while for the general category, it is 10 per cent.