Where Livelihoods Meet Enterprise

Rural women are already producing, selling, working, and creating value. The next step is recognising and strengthening the entrepreneurial potential, value, and ambition already embedded within these livelihoods.

When we talk about entrepreneurship, we usually imagine a shop, a factory, a registered business or a person selling a product in a market. But during my fieldwork in Dumka, Jharkhand, I began to wonder:

What about the woman who grows food, raises animals, collects forest produce, makes leaf plates, works as a wage labourer and sells products in the local market?  Is she only a worker? Or could we also see her as an entrepreneur?

My field study among 40 Santhal women in the state showed that while agriculture was the main livelihood, women’s economic activities extended far beyond farming. They were involved in livestock rearing, forest collection, construction, harvesting, domestic work, making handmade products, and selling vegetables, forest produce and other products in local markets.

Yet, much of this economic contribution remains invisible. The problem is not necessarily a lack of skill. It is often a lack of scale, market access, infrastructure, finance and recognition. 

From Livelihood to Enterprise

Women in the study were producing bamboo and forest-based products, and making leaf plates and bowls. Some were also selling vegetables and surplus produce from kitchen gardens. These activities contain the basic elements of an enterprise: production, labour, product, customer and income. What is often missing is the ecosystem around them.

Who helps improve the product and provide packaging? Who connects the producer with larger markets, helping with bookkeeping, formalisation, and enabling access to affordable credit? And, perhaps most importantly, who helps women see their own economic activity as something that can grow? This is where rural development and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) development can learn from each other. 

Formalisation should not simply mean getting a registration certificate. It should mean helping a small economic activity become more productive, more visible and more sustainable. Individually, a group of women producing leaf plates may be considered small-scale. But collectively, they could potentially purchase raw materials, improve quality, standardise production, develop packaging and negotiate with buyers. The same principle could apply to vegetables, handicrafts, livestock products or other locally available resources. 

Food Security with Income Generation

However, market-oriented growth should not come at the cost of food security. That is another lesson from the field.

Most women in the study were farming primarily for household sustenance. Ninety per cent were engaged in agriculture, with paddy being the main crop. The objective thus cannot simply be to shift everything towards commercial production. A better approach may be to build a nutrition-sensitive livelihood model – one where families retain sufficient food for themselves while creating opportunities to earn from surplus production.

Only 37.5% of the women practised kitchen gardening, but those who did, reported producing several vegetables, consuming them at home and selling the surplus. That is a small but powerful livelihood model that combines food security with income generation, placing women at the centre of economic activity. 

Expanding Horizon

The study also highlighted that women’s economic empowerment cannot be separated from education and awareness. The dissertation found that education, health, employment and decision-making are closely connected dimensions of women’s development. Therefore, when we discuss entrepreneurship among rural women, perhaps we need to broaden our definition.

Entrepreneurship does not always begin with a business plan. Sometimes it begins with a woman deciding what to grow, sometimes with making leaf plates together and selling ten extra vegetable baskets. And sometimes, it begins when a woman realises that the skill she has used for years has economic value.

The first step towards building rural enterprises is therefore, to recognise the enterprises that are already there.

The author is Ashish Kumar, Project Associate, TSU – WEE, Bihar, PCI India.