There has been an upswing in participation of Females in Labour Force over the years in the country. The official data source on Employment and Unemployment is Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) which is conducted by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) showed the estimated Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR) on usual status for females of age 15 years and above was 41.7 in 2023-24.
How Financial Loans Boost Women-Led Business Ideas?
Vivek Tiwari, MD & CEO of SATYA MicroCapital Ltd said, “India’s growth legacy has long been shaped by the contributions of women. In the past, even in times when India was contributing nearly 30% of world GDP, women played influential roles as leaders, scholars, and social reformers. This cultural ethos of women-led development has always been part of India’s foundation. Women today comprise over 14 percent of entrepreneurs in India—nearly eight million individuals—but most continue to operate outside formal financial systems. Empowering them with access to credit isn’t just economic policy—it’s a return to India’s roots. When women are equipped to lead, the nation doesn’t just grow—it transforms.”
How Does Financial Fundings Brings Equal Autonomy In Biz?
Tiwari says, “A loan does more than unlock capital; it legitimizes a woman’s right to lead. Yet women-led startups continue to be undercapitalized, receiving significantly smaller funding rounds compared to the industry average. Venture capital funding for women-led startups plummeted from 6.5 billion dollars in 2021 to just 1.1 billion in 2023. This is not a reflection of underperformance, but of persistent gendered perceptions of risk.”
Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana And Its Impact On Women Entrepreneurs
In past 10 years, public lending schemes like Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana (PMMY) has sanctioned over 52 crore loans worth Rs 32.6 lakh crore; whereas disbursing over 2.22 lakh crore rupees to 4.24 crore women entrepreneurs in FY 2023–24. According to the latest official data, 63.6% of the total Mudra beneficiaries that year were women entrepreneurs.
Tiwari opines that these interventions are necessary since the majority of women do not have conventional collateral. The fact that 36% of the loans taken by women in 2024 were against gold indicates that personal property remains their most bankable bargaining chip. Financed instruments that recognize these realities can convert loans into agents of freedom, not burden.
PM SVANidhi Yojana Impacting Women Entrepreneurs
The potential of capital is to bring women entrepreneurs out of survival and into scale. Presently, women enterprises form around 20% of India’s MSME sector and engage almost a quarter of the population of workers. With proper timing, such enterprises can transform from informal home-based businesses into scalable formal enterprises. Consider, for example, the PM SVANidhi Yojana that extended working capital loans to more than 30.6 lakh women street vendors. With access to institutional credit, these women are no longer feeding households—they are growing economies, providing jobs, and opening up markets, says Tiwari.
A study by SBI in 2023 hailed the performance of the PM SVANidhi Yojana stating that 43% beneficiaries are women street vendors. Moreover 44% of the PM SVANidhi beneficiaries belong to OBC category, while Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes account for 22%.
Tiwari has advocated that loans must become a long-term bet on participative growth rather than short-term credit risk.
“With India aiming for 8% GDP growth by 2030, the arithmetic is straightforward—empowering women through financing is not only moral, it’s economic. Financial institutions need to shift from being gatekeepers to enablers. When women are financed, they don’t only pay back loans—they pay back the country with innovation, jobs, and resilience,” he said.
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