Post by Pahlé India Foundation (PIF)

In Puri's coir clusters, nearly every artisan is a woman, 95 to 100 percent. They twist yarn from coconut husk, weave mats, and build small economies that hold together when little else does. Odisha leads India in women-led startups, at 43 percent against a national average of 18, and offers more entrepreneurship schemes than any other state. And yet the coir rope Odisha's own artisans produce is considered unfit for the Jagannath temple, which sources its rope from Kerala instead. When cyclones strip the coast, tea sellers who lose their kettles often lose everything. A Mudra loan needed in a month still takes six. In Enhancing Female Entrepreneurship and Employment in the MSME Sector in Odisha, we walk from Puri to Cuttack, listening to 35 women across coir, applique, stone-carving, terracotta, and handicraft, and to the officials, bankers, and NGOs shaping what comes next. A state where women already lead, meeting a system still learning how to back them. Report link is in the comment box. #MSME #WomenEntrepreneurs #Odisha #PahleIndia #Coir #Handicraft #PolicyResearch Rajiv Kumar | Ravi Pokharna | Shaurya Doval | Sonal Jain | Surbhi Chakraborty | Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, Government of India | Ministry of Women & Child Development | NITI Aayog | SIDBI(Small Industries Development Bank of India) | Startup India