Is It Time To Start Your Own Company?

Bazaar India speaks with the country’s leading entrepreneurs about their journeys and the lessons they’ve learnt along the way...

- Humra Afroz Khan

A year after women, globally, lost more than 64 million jobs (a much higher figure than men, costing them about $800 billion in earnings, as per Oxfam International, a UK-based charitable organisation), the female force has not only returned in significant numbers but also with a will to hold the reins in their own hands. According to an article in the Silicon Valley Business Journal, twice as many women as men launched small businesses during the pandemic. In India as well, women own over 20 percent of all micro, small, and medium businesses (yes, men still own nearly 80 percent!). This news holds greater meaning when one is made aware that India’s Female Labour Force Participation Rate had fallen to a historic low of 17.5 percent in 2017-18— and “only seven of 100 entrepreneurs” in India were women.

With the realisation that it is critical for any country’s progress—economical, social, and beyond—to have ‘fempreneurs’ in the mix, the world certainly has swung into swifter action, including putting various female-friendly measures and policies into place. However, multiple surveys still show that women, worldwide, continue to have it tougher than their male counterparts—often subjected to gender biases, rejection, or delays in regards to funding. But despite the odds, it can’t be denied that this is a great time for us to turn entrepreneurs. Bazaar India spoke to six, enterprising business firebrands about their journeys and their advice to women business aspirants...

Rhea Mazumdar Singhal, Founder & CEO, Ecoware “