Challenges of Women Micro Entrepreneurs in the Textile Industry of Tiruppur District

Abstract

Women entrepreneurs may be defined as the women or a group of women who commence and operate a
business venture. In today’s world, women entrepreneurs are playing a vital role and have become an
integral part of the global business environment for the sustained economic development and social
progress. In India, though women are playing a key role in the society, their entrepreneurial ability has
not yet been properly tapped due to the number of challenges faced by them. In Tamil Nadu majority of
the textile and garment workforce involves women and these women workers in Textile mills are about
65% of unskilled workers. If women are developed into entrepreneurs they could contribute a lot for the
development of textile industry. In Tamil Nadu, the textile industry is female dominated. There are certain
unskilled and semi-skilled job categories which are specifically ear marked for women. It was found that
if there is a temporary shortage of women workers, available male workers with similar background will
demand a higher wage. The predominance of small firms, low qualification of the workforce and limited
trade union presence, contribute to the fact that exploitation and discrimination particularly in terms of
gender continues to exist in the textile and garment industry. Among the Southern States, Tamil Nadu is an
important cotton textile producer. Although Tamil Nadu produces only about 6 per cent of the mill cloth of
India, the State excels all other States in the production of yarn and accounts for over 44% of the total
yarn production of the country. If women micro entrepreneurs are engaged in the production of
readymade garments in large quantities, there is much scope for more percentage of mill cloth production
in Tamil Nadu. Woman micro entrepreneurs through Self Help Groups are engaged in the production of
readymade garments. These women entrepreneurs face lot of challenges in running the garment business.
In this paper an attempt has been made to analyze the challenges faced by women micro entrepreneurs in
the Textile industry of Tiruppur District.