Capital Against caste

Context: India needs to introduce ‘Dalit Entrepreneurship’ to address the issues with the marginalised section.

Issues associated with marginalised sections 

• Limited participation in business: Due to dominance of a few castes over the domains of business.
• Along with access to capital for their entrepreneurial ventures, dominant castes are also accumulating social capital.
• A marginalised section of society only has the option of either taking up a government job or continuing their caste-based occupation. 
• Minimal Dalit-owned ventures in numbers as well as revenue: Dalits are still indentured to their traditional caste-assigned occupations, which are usually manual and low-paying. 
• Dalits who consider taking up self-employment are hindered by the fear of social discord and losing any potential sub-caste networks that might provide them with mutual insurance. 
• Lack of accessibility of schemes to marginalised section: Actual benefit could never reach the beneficiaries due to the artificial inaccessibility created by inherent social and caste biases. 

Way Forward: Dalit entrepreneurship holds the promise of social transformation.

• Entrepreneurship can shape access to rights and push against entrenched social hierarchies. Circulation of material benefits and the relative autonomy.
• An active participant in New India: Dalits to be a stakeholder and an active participant in New India.
• Dalit entrepreneurs take recourse to their internal ties and use them to sustain their economic gains. 
• Supporting Dalits entrepreneurs is integral to the nation’s inclusive development.
• Government need to increase the share of goods produced by Dalits to nurture them. 
• Need to amend Dalit rules for collateral in order to ease financial support for Dalit entrepreneurs. 
• Need to formulate multiple credit guarantee trusts by raising contributions: Trusts will provide guaranteed support to the banks for them to extend credit. 
• Social vulnerability index needs to be introduced, addressed and assessed.
• Need for Dalit-focussed alternate investment finance (AIF) and private equity (PE) funds to create a vibrant and inclusive MSME ecosystem.

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