Smriti Irani bats for rise in women entrepreneurs

Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh) [India], Nov 17 (ANI): Union Minister Smriti Irani has pitched for the need to further empower and encourage women to come forward and work as entrepreneurs, adding that the total number of women entrepreneurs in the country is still less.
Attending a women awareness programme organised by FICCI here, Irani said, "As per the sixth economic census, the total number of women entrepreneurs was pegged at 13 per cent, of which only five per cent of women were engaged in non-farm enterprises with the remaining working in the agricultural sector."
The Union Textiles Minister observed that there was a time when a nation's success was measured in terms of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). However, when a woman is empowered financially, measurement of success of the society go up in terms of human development index (HDI), she added.
"When you empower a woman financially you actually, in terms of measurement of success of your society, go up in the human development index. Why is this important today? There was a time when we were measuring the success of a nation on basis of only the GDP."
She continued, "Today, we measure the success of a nation on the basis of the human development index. If that is the measure of a nation's success, then it is imperative that we invest in women as entrepreneurs, invest in women as leaders."
Irani noted that difficulty in not understanding English was becoming a hurdle in the growth of rural entrepreneurs, and urged the removal of such barriers "As they do not speak and understand English, it becomes a hurdle in their growth. The women of the country have to face defeat when it comes to language. They have talent. For their success, we have to remove their language barrier and make them more comfortable," she added.
Citing an example of the Indian entertainment industry, Irani, who is also a former TV actress, said that women should engage in more technical roles beyond just acting on screen.
"One would notice there is a shortage of women in the technical aspects of films such as editing, cinematography, animation etc. The need is to position our girls to groom for such technical roles as well beyond acting and creative direction," she said. (ANI)