DesiPundit

Speaking of Micro-Finance, the model of many Self-Help Groups (SHGs) revolves around women using traditional activities like making papads to generate income that is supposed to slowly help in their economic development. Premasri makes the case that such a skills-based approach is just not adequate, because women cannot foresee, or adapt to changing market conditions.  She goes on to talk about what kind of training is required to develop true entrepreneurs.

Because these types of trainings teach women only how to produce a specific product, rather than how to assess market needs and then produce, women like Sunita are poorly equipped to tackle market fluctuations or competition. In other words, training Sunita with the skills required to produce papad is effectively the same as teaching her how to read / write her name, but neglecting to teach her the remainder of the alphabet. How can we then expect Sunita to read a book, unless, of course, she teaches herself?