The SEHER Program: A Game Changer for Women Entrepreneurs

Why in news?

• Currently, India MSME’ stands at 63 Million including Micro Enterprise, Small and Medium Enterprise with about 20% of MSME owned and managed by women.
• As women own these enterprises, they provide employment to nearly 27000 people meaning that these businesses are boosting the economy of the nation.
• But figures reveal that if women’s entrepreneurship development could be ramped up, more than thirty million more ventures could be created which in turn could produce one hundred fifty to one hundred and seventy million new jobs.
• In this light, The SEHER Program – a credit education by WEP & TransUnion CIBIL, further targets educated women, enabling them with credit knowledge and entrepreneurial skills. It is proposed as the tool to change the way people get access to the financial instruments stimulating the growth and employment in India.

About The SEHER Program:

• This New Initiative Will be a Revolution for Women Self-Made Bosses.
• The women entrepreneurship platform is a public private partnership program which was incubated at Niti Aayog.
• Its goal is to build an environment suitable for women entrepreneurial ventures in the context of India. SEHER which has been initiated by Ms. Anna Roy, the Mission Director of WEP and Principal Economic Adviser at NITI Aayog wants to target one of the most significant factors that keep the women entrepreneur unsuccessful – that is illiteracy in the financial aspect.
• The program was announced at the presence of great personalities including Director at department of financial services, ministry of finance, Chief Executive of the Indian Banks’ Association IBA, Executive Director at Reserve Bank of India RBI, Joint Secretary at the ministry of micro, small and medium enterprises.

Objectives and Impact

• The SEHER Program forms a part of WEP’s Financing Women Collaborative (FWC), which is a novel approach that is wedded to the firm intention of championing the cause of female entrepreneurs as they seek funding.
• The SEHER Program addresses one of the key barriers to MSME development: Financial illiteracy has been cited as another cause of the poor savings record.
• SEHER seeks to enhance women entrepreneurs’ awareness on financial management with focus on CIBIL Rank and commercial credit report in a bid to achieve better and timely finance access.
• This in turn fosters business expansion and plays a key role in the advancement of the total economy of the given nation.
• These changes in the programmes’ approach also guarantees that women entrepreneurs are well positioned to manage and develop their business.
• The trends that are today inherent in the society indicate the increasing need for business loans among women.
• From the data analysis by TransUnion CIBIL, it is evident that the propensity for business loans has increased with interests nursed by women hitting a 3 percent rise.
• from this year 2019 to the financial year 2024, the target is to use it at least 9 times.
• The portion of women borrowers with business loans grew by 10% during the same time, Credit Union statistics showed. Of the 1. Of these, 5 crore borrowers with a live business loan in March 2024, % were women.
• The business loan portfolio by women borrowers increased at a Compound Annualized Growth Rate (CAGR) of 35 % during March 2019 to March 2024.
• The study also reveals that the percentage distribution of female borrowers in agri-business’, ‘commercial vehicle’, and ‘equipment’ loans stays constant at 28% for the period March, 2019 to March, 2024.
• This goes a long way to show how credit access as well as financial literacy power women to sustains as well as expand their ventures.

Key Strategies for Success

• Credit Education and Awareness:
  • Some of the tools that are provided with the help of SEHER include; The spate, the content consists of the necessity to build a good credit score and register at CIBIL.
  • Such knowledge is important for obtaining finance as simply and as soon as possible.
• Support Across Socio-Economic Categories and Geographic Locations:
  • In this respect, the program is developed for women entrepreneurs across all the socio-economic status, ages, and regions, to cover as many interested parties as possible.
• Collaboration with Key Stakeholders:
  • Thus, SEHER’s effectiveness is based not only on WEP and TransUnion CIBIL but also implies cooperation with numerous partners, including banks and other financial institutions and government bodies.
  • This multiple stakeholder strategy guarantees the facilitation of support to women entrepreneurs in an elaborate way.

The Awareness of Women Entrepreneurship About Broader Issues

• Women entrepreneurs have the responsibility to contribute the growth of employment through their businesses. Based on the Udyam Registration Portal (URP) of the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise (MSMEs), women self-employed firms are 20. 5% of the total MSMEs, en ploying 27 million people. There is a slight difference, where rural women own 22. 24 percent of the enterprises against 18. 42 percent in the urban areas.
• To summary, the increase of women’s entrepreneurship may increase more than 30m enterprises requisite and bring in 150-170m new jobs. Females have a stake in entrepreneurial establishments and are currently participating in the economy with a share of 18 percent. 73 % attributed to employment that has been provided by the units registered under URP, suggesting their strong cord in the economy.
• This research presents the analysis of the role of TransUnion CIBIL in the formulation of its various products and services.
• TransUnion CIBIL is a leader in offering data and analytics solutions for economic inclusion and self-fulfilment. The company deals with several segments that encompass the financial segment, micro and small businesses, large companies, and final customers. Thus, cooperating with WEP on the SEHER program, TransUnion CIBIL seeks to enhance the dissemination of the financial literacy and the proficiency of women in business. This partnership should aid the country’s dream of generating a USD 5 trillion economy as more women turn into successful business owners and entrepreneurs.

Conclusion

• Thus, SEHER is a welcome development to progress women entrepreneurs in India and start a campaign for more change.
• Evaluating the importance of the program, it is critical to notice that the primary concern of the program will be to deliver financial literacy and business skills for enhancing the financial awareness of business women and providing them with the required financial instruments for further development.
• Through public support of key financial institutions like WEP and TransUnion CIBIL, this initiative is bound to help create more jobs and grow the economy as a whole, hence fulfilling India’s main economic objectives.
• With women entrepreneurship growing across geography, have noted that the SEHER program are relevant and useful to pass knowledge much as women businesses gain knowledge and funding to be relevant in today’s market.
• Due to the SEHER program intention to establish an enabling environment meant to support women enterprising, the potential to ably extend its gains to influence woman entrepreneurship in India is highly probable and will go along way to create a better future for women business persons in India.

People also ask

Q1: What is the SEHER Program?
Ans: The SEHER Program is a credit education program which launched by the Women Entrepreneurship Platform (WEP) and TransUnion CIBIL. So, it seeks to make these women entrepreneurs in India financially smart by providing them with necessary skills to access the relevant financial products for creating employment and fueling economic growth.

Q2: The SEHER Program was launched by whom?
Ans: The SEHER Program has been embarked by Ms. Anna Roy, the Mission Director of WEP and Principal Economic Adviser, NITI Aayog. The launch event was graced by some of the important personalities from Ministry of Finance, Indian Banks’ Association, Reserve Bank of India, Ministry of MSME and TransUnion CIBIL.