Govt to prepare database of women entrepreneurs

When the government announced a slew of packages for women entrepreneurs in 2010, it received accolades from the business community. Buoyed by the response, the government even went on to announce that it would be more gender-sensitive while promoting the private sector.
Consequently, Industrial Policy-2010 laid down a special provision that promised establishment of a separate cell to facilitate women entrepreneurs and industrialists. It also expressed commitment to promote them through wide range of special programs and packages.
The Ministry of Industry (MoI) then went a step further and announced that it would annually felicitate a woman entrepreneur for outstanding performance.
Two years down the line, it has become apparent that these programs were announced without due exercise. So much so, it has also become clear the government does not even have a simple record of active women entrepreneurs in the country.
“No wonder, all these promises and commitment to recognize women entrepreneurs remained unimplemented,” an MoI official said acknowledging the realty.
But the good news is that the government has finally realized its weakness and has taken a step forward to develop a ground to implement the said programs.
"The ministry is now developing a database of the country´s women entrepreneurs," Bishnu Dhakal, under secretary at the ministry, told Republica. "The programs and plans that focus on women entrepreneurs will be effectively implemented once we know their actual status."
According to Dhakal, the ministry has formed a task force at the Industrial Promotion Division. "The task force is collecting data from all 75 districts in the country," Dhakal said. The task force is directly communicating with district level offices of the Department of Cottage and Small Industries in all districts to compile information on the country´s women entrepreneurs.
Additionally, the ministry has decided to use that database to provide special facilities to women entrepreneurs. "We will be able to identify the outstanding women entrepreneurs in the country through that database," Dhakal said.
Meanwhile, the ministry is also developing a database to figure out the total capital investment made by women in the industrial sector and number of jobs they have generated.