The Centre’s public procurement initiative, Government eMarketplace (GeM) has registered over 1.44 lakh Udyam-verified women-led micro and small enterprises (MSEs) under the Womaniya programme launched in 2019.
Women MSE sellers have fulfilled over 14.76 lakh orders worth ₹21,265 crore in gross merchandise value since the beginning of the programme. They now have a share of 74% in the order value of products sold on GeM and 26% in the order value of service categories, informed the Union Commerce Ministry in a recent data shared.
The Womaniya programme encourages women entrepreneurs and self-help groups (SHGs) from the informal sector to sell via GeM. Its other objectives are to help them access public procurement markets, and work towards achieving gender-inclusive economic growth of under-served seller groups such as women-owned and led MSEs, tribal entrepreneurs, divyangjan, start-ups, SHGs, artisan and weavers.
Procurement worth Rs 42,564 crore was made by government departments and CPSEs from MSEs in financial year 2022-23 so far, of which 0.96% share – worth Rs 1,205 crore – came from women MSEs against a 3% annual target, said the official data.
The top product categories with the maximum number of women entrepreneurs were desktop computers, smartphones, special purpose telephones (smartphone for Integrated Child Development Service – ICDS), and hopper tipper dumper. The top service categories were manpower outsourcing services – minimum wage, custom bid for services, human resource outsourcing service, monthly basis cab and taxi hiring services, and manpower outsourcing services – fixed remuneration, according to the government data.
