Developing an entrepreneurial culture among its member-women has been an early idea with Kudumbashree mission.

“We had the concept of developing enterprises where poor women function as owners, managers and employees”, says T.K. Jose, former executive director of Kudumbashree mission.

“We used to call it OME (for owner, manager, and employee). At Kudumbashree, we had this strong belief that an entrepreneurial culture would help poor women develop capability, managerial ability, and confidence”.

Enterprises that Kudumbashree has promoted broadly fall in four sub-sectors.

• Production
• Services
• Trading
• Sales and Marketing

Across the four sub-sectors, the enterprises can be classified into five categories.

• Food products
• Apparels and accessories
• Handmade toiletries
• Handicrafts
• Café and catering services

Group enterprises were conceived as that would give the women better acceptance, and help them in gaining confidence. Micro enterprises were also considered as a logical supplement of the thrift and credit programme. Enterprises could generate income, which would lead to better performance in thrift, and improve overall performance.