New Delhi, April 1 (IANS) National Commission for Women (NCW) Chairperson Lalitha Kumaramangalam on Wednesday said that women’s contribution to GDP was “very low”, underlining the need for them to be trained in administration, planning and providing technical skills to those engaged in agriculture.
Speaking at the inaugural session of a seminar organised by Ficci in partnership with Intel India, “Accelerating Women Entrepreneurship”, she said in India entrepreneurship is talked about in terms of technical or industrial production.
“People hardly ever look at agriculture as an output from which people can make money. In India, agriculture is run by women. Despite most of the influence, inputs and finance being directed at men, women do over 80-87 percent of the work and hardly own about one percent of assets,” she said.
Kumaramangalam questioned why women are not looked at as contributors.
“Forget about housework, but what about the fact that women do an enormous amount of work outside of their house that is just not counted. I am not saying GDP figures will shoot up if you include them.. but in the calculation of GDP the contribution of women is very, very low,” she said.
In a panel discussion on “Women Entrepreneurship: Catalysts for growth” conducted here, Anasuya Gupta, the chairperson and managing director of CICO Technologies said the potential for supporting and developing women’s entrepreneurship in India was “immense”.
“Increasing women’s earning capacity should be a national priority. Empowering women will not only provide a platform to boost India’s growth potential but will create positive social externalities for generations to come,” Gupta said.
The event also saw the launch of a report “Accelerating Women Entrepreneurship in India: Roadmap for NCR”.