The Confederation of Women Entrepreneurs of India, (COWE), Telangana Chapter, – a social organization engaged in empowering women through entrepreneurship; hosted the Women’s Day Celebration, on Saturday at Taj Vivanta, Begumpet, Chief Guest Shri Bandaru Dattatreya, former union minister for state and Member of Parliament, formally inaugurated the event. Also present were special guests Shri Jayesh Ranjan, IAS, Principal Secretary, Industries & Commerce, Govt. of Telangana; Shri N. Ramchander Rao, MLC; Shri B. Venkatesham, IAS, Secretary to Youth Advancement, Tourism & Culture Department; Shri Debasish Mishra, DGM, SBI Head Office, Hyderabad; Smt. Kiran Uniyal, Martial Arts Practitioner, Philonthropist; Mrs Lalitha Aluri, President, COWE, Telangana Chapter; Ms Neeraja Reddy, Secretary, COWE, Telangana Chapter and Women Entrepreneurs from across the state.
Shri Bandaru Dattatreya said, appreciate you all for taking to entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship and skill go hand in hand, without skill entrepreneurship can’t be profitable. A high skilled person is in great demand and their earning is also much better. The Union government is encouraging entrepreneurship by coming up with innovative policies which are conducive and the state Government is also doing its best in this direction. COWE has been helping women to leverage their abilities and build enterprises. Prime Minister Modiji’s policies on loans disbursement especially Mudra loan has been encouraging entrepreneurs to set up business and several women are also availing it, besides providing employment to others. Yearly Rs 3 cr., people are availing such loans and the encouraging aspect is 70% of them are women. Most such entrepreneurs are from small businesses. The loan disbursement is so well streamlined and transparent, the Central Government has ensured no more middlemen, no more scams and the benefits are reach the beneficiaries. Therefore I request COWE to provide skill training to more and more women, with that training and skill, they can fetch loans and set up their businesses, this will make several more woman to come forward and that will lead to women progressing further.
Shri Jayesh Ranjan said, the COWE members are role models for other women and entrepreneurs. Many of you started your journey and built your enterprises when the times were very different, the opportunities were scarce. The number of women entrepreneurs two or three decades age were far and few and some of you venturing into business in such difficult time is definitely praise worthy. Things have changed since, still there are some gaps, deficiencies. There are some observations about women participation in entrepreneurship. In the IT sector the positive thing is almost 40% of employees are women, the barrier of women not being able to work in such companies has been broken. But at the same time the number of Women CEOs or COOs in IT sector is considerably low, not even in single digits. Even in the manufacturing sector the women employees presence is very disproportionate, women in the workforce here is just about 18%. We have to see how we can overcome the barriers preventing women from working in manufacturing sector. We have to take a leaf from Apparel sector which has up to 75% women workforce and bring those practices to other sectors. Some obvious solutions we gain from Apparel or IT sectors is, in these the working conditions for women are more conducive, the employment is purely merit based with no gender discrimination, the nature of work is familiar, have an environment which is safe and secure, the working conditions and timings are reasonable, employers also adopt pro-women policies, they have a pickup and drop service. So other sectors need to learn and adopt women conducive policies to encourage more gender parity in work place.
This is an opportunity for all of us at COWE to gain insights from successful business persons on the best practices and fine-tune our entrepreneurial skills. The event through the Awards ceremony brings to limelight some of the hidden gems amidst us, who are an inspiration to all, says Mrs Lalitha Aluri, President, COWE, Telangana Chapter.
The One day program had eminent speakers enlightening and providing insights to women entrepreneurs on ways to manage and scale up their business, through talks, panel discussions and deliberations. Later in the afternoon, Chief Guest Ms Gongidi Sunitha Mahender Reddy, MLA, Alair Constituency, TRS; presented COWE AWARDS to outstanding Women Entrepreneurs for their stellar accomplishments.