Journal of Small Business and Entrepreneurship Development

Empowerment of Women through Entrepreneurship: A Study in Birbhum, West Bengal
Dr. Sharmistha Bhattacharjee

Abstract
Empowerment is about people having expanded choices and a much greater level of involvement and control in all parts of their family and community life. Women in rural India participate in a variety of economic activities, to empower themselves but their potential is still underutilized. The growths of enterprises have been a prominent feature of small business in India. To examine the participation of rural women in rural industries, empirical studies become imperative. Withstanding all social and cultural suppressions, a rural woman in India shares abundant responsibilities and performs a wide spectrum of duties in running the family, maintaining the household, attending farm labor, tenting domestic animals and extending a helping hand in rural artisanship and handicraft. Rural handicraft has empowered women folk and encouraged them to enter the world of entrepreneurship. It has facilitated ranges of economic and social benefits. Entrepreneurship provides an income-generating activity which has multiple advantages for women, since this can be done at home, a woman gets a fearer deal from the economy. Here the women combine the work with her other duties .She can control her timing rather than having to be at some other persons. She controls her own earnings, the harder she works, more she earns. She is ensured of a year-round income. She learns to deal with people outside her home/village/community and develops her own personality and self-confidence. This article discusses about the women in the village of Birbhum West Bengal, India who are engaged in entrepreneurial work in marketing katha work made by the rural women or themselves.

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