📄 Abstract
Rural women play an important role in household income generation, agriculture, allied activities, self-employment and micro-enterprises. However, inadequate access to finance, limited entrepreneurial skills, insufficient market opportunities, low digital literacy and procedural barriers often restrict their economic advancement. Government welfare schemes have increasingly focused on financial inclusion, livelihood promotion, skill development, credit accessibility and entrepreneurship development. Against this background, the present study examines the role of government welfare schemes in promoting rural women entrepreneurship and financial independence in Coimbatore District, Tamil Nadu. The study focuses on beneficiaries of schemes and initiatives including Self-Help Group (SHG) programmes, Mahalir Thittam, DAY-NRLM, PMJDY, PMMY, PMEGP and skill-development programmes. Primary data were collected through a structured questionnaire covering awareness, scheme utilization, income generation, savings, financial independence, entrepreneurial participation and challenges in accessing welfare benefits. The study adopts an analytical approach using percentage analysis, mean scores, ranking technique, Chi-square test, correlation analysis and multiple regression. The available study results indicate that SHG loan programmes and Mahalir Thittam were among the most utilized initiatives. Access to credit recorded the highest entrepreneurial benefit score (Mean = 4.48), followed by self-employment opportunities (Mean = 4.34) and business skill development (Mean = 4.16). Welfare scheme effectiveness showed a strong positive association with economic empowerment (r = 0.782, p < 0.001), while the regression model explained 67.4% of the variation in economic empowerment. The findings suggest that welfare schemes can facilitate the transition of rural women from welfare beneficiaries to economically active entrepreneurs, although market access, digital literacy, procedural complexity and inadequate guidance remain important barriers.
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📚 How to Cite:
Dr.R.Amsaveni , FROM BENEFICIARIES TO ENTREPRENEURS: EVALUATING THE ROLE OF GOVERNMENT WELFARE SCHEMES IN PROMOTING RURAL WOMEN ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND FINANCIAL INDEPENDENCE , Volume 12 , Issue 9, September 2026, EPRA International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research (IJMR) , Pages: 267 - 271 , DOI: https://doi.org/10.36713/epra31508