A Study of Women Entrepreneurship and Their Problems in the Development in Western Maharashtra

This study is based on the secondary source of data which are collected from Fourth All India Census on MSME (Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises) published by Government of India. The limitation of the study is availability of data. The latest data available regarding women entrepreneurs are for the year 200607, published by Government of India through Fourth All India Census on MSME. Government of India in Ministry of MSME has conducted three Censuses of registered Small Scale Industries (SSI) prior to the enactment of MSME Development Act, 2006. The last Census was conducted in 2002-03 with reference year 2001-02, the Government of India published data only for registered SSI (Small Scale Industries) sector in the 1 st and 2nd censuses. These censuses did not provide data on women enterprises in the same manner as the Fourth Census provided. Because of this our study only refers to a particular point of time (2006-07) rather than making any “over the period analysis”. Considering the importance of database for policy formulation, an All India 4th Census was introduced in 2008.