Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a renewed push to scale up women-led enterprises in rural India, unveiling the proposal for Self-Help Entrepreneur (SHE) Marts in her Union Budget 2026 speech. The move marks a decisive shift in policy thinking from supporting women through credit-linked livelihoods to enabling them to become owners of sustainable, growth-oriented businesses.
“Building on the success of the Lakhpati Didi programme, I propose to help women take the next step from credit-linked livelihoods to being owners of enterprises,” Sitharaman said while presenting the Budget.
She explained that SHE Marts would be set up as community-owned retail outlets within cluster-level federations, backed by enhanced and innovative financing instruments.
At the heart of the proposal is an attempt to solve a long-standing structural problem faced by rural women entrepreneurs: access to stable and visible markets. While India’s self-help group (SHG) movement has expanded dramatically over the past decade, women-led enterprises often remain restricted to local haats, exhibitions, or occasional government-sponsored fairs. This limits scale, price discovery, and long-term sustainability.
According to government data, more than two crore women have already achieved this benchmark. The budget’s emphasis on SHE Marts signals that the next phase of the programme will focus not just on income thresholds, but on enterprise creation, asset ownership, and long-term economic resilience.
Crucially, the proposal also seeks to strengthen grassroots institutions. By anchoring SHE Marts within cluster-level federations, the government is attempting to transform SHGs from primarily savings-and-credit collectives into full-fledged economic institutions. Community ownership is expected to ensure that profits are reinvested locally, governance remains participatory, and decision-making stays in the hands of women entrepreneurs themselves.
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The Budget’s push on women-led enterprises is complemented by increased social sector spending. The Ministry of Women and Child Development has been allocated over Rs 28,000 crore in the 2026–27 financial year, with a substantial share going towards nutrition, childcare, and maternal health through schemes such as Saksham Anganwadi and POSHAN 2.0. While these allocations fall under welfare spending, early childhood care, and women’s health are foundational to women’s economic participation.
The government has also reiterated its commitment to building one girls’ hostel in every district, a move aimed at improving access to education and employment for young women, particularly from rural and marginalised backgrounds.
By moving women from subsistence work to owning enterprises, Budget 2026 treats rural women not just as welfare beneficiaries but as key contributors to India’s economic growth.
