Entrepreneurship Behaviour for Women Engaged in Sericulture: A Study in Uttarakhand

Abstract

Entrepreneurship among women has come a long way in Uttarakhand. However the proportion of women entrepreneurs in small scale industries reveals abysmally low at ten percent. Sericulture with its agricultural base and industrial superstructure has been widely accepted as a sustainable economic activity. Sericulture is one of the most labour intensive sectors of the Indian economy combining both agriculture and industry which provides the means of livelihood to a large section of the population. The present study has been carried out in Uttarakhand state. Out of the seven districts of the Garhwal hills, Dehradun was selected purposively, because maximum number of women engaged in sericulture enterprise belonged to Uttarakhand. The entrepreneurship behaviour includes various dimensions such as imitativeness, seeking opportunities, innovations, decision making, achievement motivation, risk taking ability, knowledge about sericulture enterprises, information seeking, leadership ability, communication skills, self-confidence etc. It was found from the study that in terms of entrepreneurship behaviour majority of the women engaged in sericulture had medium level of achievement motivation, risk taking ability, leadership ability, and decision making ability, innovativeness, management orientation, less favourable attitude, information seeking behaviour and had low level of self-confidence.