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Government
Schemes for Micro There are almost 6 million micro enterprises in India. The lockdown since March has affected the rural micro enterprises leaving them in a severe cash crunch. Shelesh Bhati is a resident of Sandalpur village in Khategaon block of Dewas district, Madhya Pradesh and is the youngest member in the family of five. Transform Rural India Foundation (TRIF) supported him in his entrepreneurial journey through the Entrepreneurship Motivation Training programme, business plan creation and credit linkage of INR 50,000 through Rang De along with fellowship of INR 14,000. He started his electric repair shop in November 2019. The business kicked off well and he used to generate between INR 15000 to 20000 per month from sales and service repairs, as there was considerable demand in the area. Since March when the lockdown was imposed, there was a steep decline in his sales and service due to unavailability of raw material (motor winding wire). In addition, the last three months with almost nil business, he is facing a cash crunch for working capital to maintain his day-to-day operations. Why Government Schemes for Micro Enterprises have not Achieved their Objectives? During the current times of the pandemic, the government has come up with multiple schemes for micro entrepreneurs. But we often read headlines such as:
Resources are allocated by the government for addressing a particular need but challenges in implementation on the ground contribute to the non-performance of programmes. Here is an example of skill training under the State Rural Livelihood Mission programme to highlight this point. To fulfil the livelihood training objective of National Rural Livelihood Mission and State Rural Livelihood Mission of the Government of India, multiple trainings are organised by the district administration to enable Self Help Group and Federation members to undertake skilled and high-income activities such as tailoring, incense stick making, gardening, running canteens etc. With sound business proposals, it is easier to 'cajole' bank managers and get the loans approved. However, the harsh reality is that the training programmes provided to the entrepreneurs with the objective of income enhancement and improving livelihood merely become an ‘end’ in themselves with neither side taking the learnings forward to ensure that the training results in successful livelihood projects. Also, the focus on achieving the annual targets during the end of the financial year contributes to the 'forced' nature of achievement of numbers.
Social Innovation Tools for Enhancing Rural Entrepreneurship The top down approach followed in planning and implementing the programmes is one of the major challenges. To reduce this top-driven approach and understand the needs of the communities, social innovation tools are being adopted by the Development Alternatives Group. We have collaborated with Transform Rural India Foundation (TRIF) and are working towards co-creating such ideas. Regional enterprise coalitions are being formed at the district level. These coalitions bring together various stakeholders in an area and entrepreneurs on a common platform and help by leveraging existing policies and enhancing local entrepreneurial capacities. Entrepreneurs in need of building basic skills can be connected with SRLM training programmes rather than forcing it down those who may not be interested as currently is the case. To support the enterprise development in these geographies, the participants came up with a need to build an incubation center or enterprise development facility. The stakeholders are planning to tap into government support for incubators, to build this center jointly with entrepreneurs and communities. In this way, the work at meso-scale strengthens ground action through facilitation of co-creation of solutions. Overtime, we hope this will enable policies to be more cognizant of local realities. ■
References:
Ankit Mudgal
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