How India's microenterprises can help solve the country's employment crisis

There is also a problem with women's participation in India's microenterprises: Social and market factors are loaded against them affecting their productivity

As India struggles with an unemployment crisis, its microenterprises--units with fewer than 20 workers--can become significant engines for job creation, concluded an October 2019 report.

• India has failed to increase the scale of the microenterprise sector substantially;
• A majority of India’s microenterprises are tiny and run with fewer than three workers;
• The sector shows good growth in labour productivity but with very low wage levels.

These are some of the significant conclusions of the study by Azim Premji University’s Centre for Sustainable Employment and the Global Alliance for Mass Entrepreneurship, which looked at all non-farm microenterprises, except the construction sector (National Sample Survey covered