Source: PIB
Subject: Women, Vulnerable Section
Context: The Womaniya initiative on the Government e-Marketplace (GeM) was highlighted, for its success in enabling over 2.1 lakh women entrepreneurs to secure orders worth ₹28,000 crore.
About Womaniya: Building Inclusive Market Access for Women Entrepreneurs
What it is?
- Launched in 2019 under the Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Womaniya is an inclusion-focused initiative on the GeM platform. It provides a dedicated digital interface for women-led micro and small enterprises (MSEs) and SHGs to list products like handicrafts, handloom, and office accessories for direct purchase by Central and State Ministries and PSUs.
Key Data and Statistics:
- Registration Growth: Over 2.1 lakh women MSEs are currently registered on the GeM platform.
- Order Volume: Women entrepreneurs secured 13.7 lakh orders in the 2025-26 financial year.
- Contract Value: Total contract value awarded to women MSEs reached over ₹28,000 crore, a growth of 27.60% over the previous year.
- Target Surpassing: While the mandated procurement target is 3%, women-led orders accounted for 5.6% of GeM’s total orders.
Key Features of the Initiative
- Digital Onboarding: Utilizes Udyam verification and immersive training workshops to onboard women MSEs seamlessly.
- Standardised Cataloguing: Uses uniform templates and technical attributes to ensure products are easily discoverable and comparable for buyers.
- Paperless & Contactless: All processes, from bidding and invoicing to payments, are fully digital to reduce intermediary dependence.
- Time-Bound Payments: Features digitized workflows that ensure timely payments, which is essential for micro-suppliers with limited working capital.
- Outreach & Support: Includes capacity building through vernacular training and buyer-seller meets across various states.
Impact of Women Entrepreneurs in India:
- Grassroots Empowerment: As of February 2026, 10.05 crore women have been mobilized into 90.09 lakh SHGs, driving collective economic action.
- Market Independence: Direct access to government buyers reduces the historical dependence on exploitative intermediaries.
- Supplier Diversity: The initiative expands the diversity of the government’s supplier base by integrating under-represented groups.
- Sustained Mobility: Transitions small-scale production into formal, sustainable enterprise participation and economic independence.
- Financial Visibility: Digital trails created through GeM enhance the financial visibility of women-led firms, supporting long-term business growth.
Challenges Associated with Women’s Credit and Markets:
- Digital Readiness: Disparities in digital literacy and technical skills can slow down the independent usage of complex procurement tools.
- Time Poverty: Many women balance business with significant household and unpaid care responsibilities, limiting their time for market engagement.
- Information Asymmetry: Awareness barriers regarding specific government schemes and procurement rules still persist in remote areas.
- Limited Decision-Making: In some rural contexts, women may lack full autonomy over pricing, procurement, and investment decisions.
- Collateral Constraints: Operating in low-income environments often means a lack of formal collateral, making scaling difficult.
Way Ahead:
- Flow-Based Underwriting: Systematically integrate digital footprints from platforms like GeM and UPI into credit models to help nano-enterprises.
- Vernacular Digital Tools: Embed voice-enabled and vernacular-first models into lending and procurement platforms to improve accessibility.
- Trust-Based Training: Use existing trust networks and SHG collectives to drive safe and sustained adoption of new digital technologies.
- Beyond Access to Progression: Focus on tracking graduation rates from small-ticket loans to larger working capital products.
- Strengthening Agency: Enhance non-financial support, such as mentorship and market linkages, to turn engagement into strategic business control.
Conclusion:
Womaniya on GeM has evolved from a specialized inclusion effort into one of India’s largest organized procurement channels for women. By converting production strengths into formal enterprise participation, it provides a direct pathway to economic independence and wider representation. Ultimately, it ensures that public procurement reflects the true capabilities and aspirations of the better half of society.
