The sixth economic census, released by ministry of statistics and programme implementation, presents a worrisome picture of the status of women entrepreneurs in the country.
 

•        The survey shows that women constitute only 13.76% of the total entrepreneurs, i.e., 8.05 million out of the 58.5 million entrepreneurs.
   

•        These establishments in total, owned by females, provide employment to 13.45 million people.

•        Another revelation is that out of these entrepreneurs, 2.76 million women (34.3% of the total entrepreneurs) work in agriculture sector whereas 5.29 million females (65.7% of the total entrepreneurs) work in non-agricultural sectors.
   

•        In the agriculture, livestock dominates (with a share of 31.6 %) among all other farming activities.

•        Among the non-agricultural activities owned by women entrepreneurs, manufacturing and retail trade are dominant ones with corresponding percentages being 29.8% and 17.8% respectively.
   

•        Out  of  the  total  establishments  under women  entrepreneurs,  percentage  share of  various  social and  religious  groups  OBC:  40.60%,  SC:  12.18%,  ST:  6.97%  and  Others  (40.25%); Hindus: 65.6%, Muslim: 12.84% and Christian: 5.2%.
  
   

•        Among the states, the largest share in number of establishments under women entrepreneurship is of Tamil Nadu (13.51%) followed by Kerala (11.35%), Andhra Pradesh (10.56%), West Bengal (10.33%) and Maharashtra (8.25%). 
   

•        Average employment per establishment for women owned establishments is 1.67.