Women empowerment public procurement: Learn about the Womaniya Initiative 2025, a government program empowering women-led businesses through GeM and UN Women collaboration for inclusive economic growth.
Womaniya Initiative: Empowering Women Through Public Procurement
Empowering Women Entrepreneurs via Government Procurement
In a landmark move towards inclusive growth and gender equality, the Government e‑Marketplace (GeM) recently joined forces with UN Women under the Womaniya Initiative to promote women-led micro and small enterprises (MSEs), self-help groups (SHGs), artisans, and marginalised women. This partnership aims to facilitate the direct sale of goods and services by women-owned enterprises to government departments and PSUs, providing them a formal marketplace and wide exposure across India.
Objectives and Mechanism of Womaniya
Launched in 2019, the Womaniya Initiative was designed to address structural barriers faced by women entrepreneurs — limited market access, lack of financial support, and absence of value-addition capabilities. Through Womaniya, women-owned businesses get:
- Access to Markets: Ability to list products and services on GeM for procurement by central and state agencies.
- Access to Finance and Support: Support to get Udyam registration, financial inclusion, training, and mentoring — often in collaboration with organizations like UN Women.
- Value Addition & Formalization: Aid in improving product quality, packaging, branding to meet procurement standards; helps informal enterprises transition to formal economy.
Additionally, the government policy under Womaniya aims to reserve 3% of public procurement for women-owned businesses — institutionalising gender-inclusive procurement
Scale and Impact: Women’s Economic Participation Growing
According to the data referenced under the initiative: about 20.5% of all MSMEs in India are women-owned. These enterprises contribute 18.73% to employment and account for 11.15% of total MSME investment.
Womaniya ensures that these enterprises — often excluded from formal procurement networks — now have national-level exposure and access to large, stable orders. Through GeM’s digital procurement architecture, such businesses can engage with government buyers directly, without intermediaries.
GeM: The Digital Procurement Backbone
The Government e-Marketplace (GeM), launched in 2016 by the Ministry of Commerce, serves as India’s central platform for procurement of goods and services by government ministries, departments, PSUs, and autonomous bodies.
GeM’s features — transparent online bidding, broad adoption across all 36 States and Union Territories, and an evolving list of seller categories — make it a robust tool for enabling efficiency, fairness and inclusion.
Recent innovations have added digital tools like GeMAI, India’s first AI-powered public procurement chatbot (supporting voice and text in multiple Indian languages), which further enhance accessibility and ease-of-use for small and remote sellers.
Why this News is Important
Boost to Women’s Economic Empowerment and Gender Equality
The Womaniya Initiative, by enabling women entrepreneurs to access public procurement markets, addresses systemic gender disparities in business opportunities. It empowers women-led enterprises to secure stable government contracts — which can significantly contribute to income generation, entrepreneurship culture among women, and long-term financial independence. This directly supports social-justice and economic-inclusion agendas, aligning with the broader national and global goal of gender equality.
Implications for Government Exam Aspirants
For students preparing for government exams (like banking, railways, civil services, etc.), Womaniya is a key example of how policy-level interventions and digital platforms are shaping India’s economic landscape. Questions on current affairs, schemes, MSME policies, women empowerment, and procurement reforms may include this initiative. Awareness of Womaniya — its objectives, scale, and impact — can help in General Studies sections, especially under Economy, Governance, Social Justice, and Women’s Development.
Significance for Formalisation of Informal Sector
Many women-led enterprises in India operate in the informal sector without formal registration, leaving them vulnerable. Womaniya encourages formalisation through Udyam registration, improved compliance, quality standards — enabling small producers, artisans and SHGs to integrate with national supply chains. This helps reduce informality in the economy and strengthens the MSME ecosystem.
Historical Context
Earlier State of Women-led MSMEs and Informal Sector in India
In India, historically, many women entrepreneurs — especially artisans, rural producers, self-help groups — operated in informal markets, with limited access to institutional finance, markets, and large buyers. They often sold locally or through unorganized intermediaries. The formal public procurement ecosystem rarely included such women-led micro-enterprises.
Emergence of GeM and Digital Procurement (2016 onwards)
To reform public procurement — increase transparency, reduce corruption, and widen supplier base — the Government e-Marketplace (GeM) was launched in 2016. It created a unified digital platform for procurement of goods and services by central and state bodies. Over time, GeM became central to procurement reforms.
Recognising Gender Inclusion: Launch of Womaniya in 2019
Realizing that women — especially those from marginalized and informal backgrounds — remained excluded from formal procurement despite the existence of GeM, the Womaniya Initiative was launched in 2019. It explicitly aimed to integrate women-owned MSEs, artisans, SHGs into government supply chains, reserving procurement share, providing support and mentoring, and bridging access gaps.
Recent Push: GeM–UN Women MoU (2025)
In November 2025, GeM signed a new Memorandum of Understanding with UN Women — a collaboration expected to strengthen capacity building, provide training and mentorship, and sensitize government buyers to gender-responsive procurement. This marks a renewed push to scale up women’s participation in public procurement.
Key Takeaways from This News
| S. No. | Key Takeaway |
|---|---|
| 1 | Womaniya Initiative was launched in 2019 by GeM to integrate women-led MSEs, SHGs, artisans into public procurement. |
| 2 | Under Womaniya, 3% of government procurement is reserved for women-owned businesses. |
| 3 | About 20.5% of all MSMEs in India are women-owned; they contribute 18.73% employment and 11.15% of total MSME investment. |
| 4 | The 2025 MoU between GeM and UN Women aims to boost market access, training, and mentorship for women entrepreneurs under Womaniya. |
| 5 | GeM’s digital procurement platform (including AI-powered chatbot GeMAI) provides transparency, wider reach, and formalisation opportunities for women-led enterprises. |
FAQs: Frequently Asked Questions
1. What is the Womaniya Initiative?
The Womaniya Initiative is a government-backed program launched in 2019 to empower women-led micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs), self-help groups (SHGs), and artisans by facilitating their participation in public procurement through the Government e-Marketplace (GeM).
2. Which organizations are collaborating under Womaniya?
The initiative involves collaboration between the Government e-Marketplace (GeM) and UN Women to provide training, mentorship, and market access for women entrepreneurs.
3. How much of government procurement is reserved for women-owned enterprises?
Under Womaniya, 3% of public procurement is reserved exclusively for women-owned businesses to promote gender-inclusive economic participation.
4. What benefits does Womaniya provide to women entrepreneurs?
It offers access to government markets, digital tools for procurement, Udyam registration support, mentorship, financial inclusion, and training for quality improvement and branding.
5. What is the role of GeM in this initiative?
GeM serves as the digital procurement platform enabling women-owned enterprises to sell goods and services directly to central and state government departments, PSUs, and autonomous bodies.
6. How does Womaniya impact exam-relevant current affairs?
It is relevant for topics like government schemes, women empowerment, MSME development, public procurement reforms, and economic inclusion — commonly asked in UPSC, PSC, banking, railways, and defence exams.
7. What is GeMAI?
GeMAI is an AI-powered chatbot on GeM that facilitates procurement for sellers, including women-led businesses, through text and voice in multiple Indian languages.
Some Important Current Affairs Links
