As I sit among women from the Kasba Sangha Mahila Self Help Group Cooperative Society in West Bengal, I ask what single factor shapes a woman’s entrepreneurial journey.
“Family support,” they answer in unison.
Not community? I press.
“Community rarely helps,” explains Jharbe Mete, a senior member of the cooperative. “They’re quick to question why a woman is spending so much time outside her home. They obstruct the path — at least initially.”
Any advice? I ask.
“You need your family in your corner. When your husband and your mother-in-law stand by you, no one else can stop you. Let the critics and the questioners tag along to Sonagadi Haat. A day hawking goods in the heat, and their opinions will melt away.”
Nods. Laughter follows.
Digital Gatekeepers to Women’s Success
In West Bengal, where men control resources and decisions, supportive husbands can ignite or extinguish women’s entrepreneurial aspirations. Within Bengali families, mothers-in-law hold considerable sway over family’s decisions. So when husbands champion their wives, and mothers-in-law step in to help with household chores, childcare, and encouragement, they lay the foundation for a daughter-in-law’s success.
This support becomes even more crucial when confronting the digital divide. Less than 15% of rural West Bengal women use the internet, creating “multiple layers of disadvantage” that further compound existing barriers and leave women behind.
Jinnatunessa Khatun (Jinnu), a SoochnaPreneur Business Mitra (digital business enabler) in Supur Village, embodies this transformation when family support and digital access align.
With her family’s backing, she empowers 120 Rural Women Entrepreneurs (RWEs), enabling them to apply for online banking and digital payments, as well as for digital applications and trade licenses. She has even set up a pop-up store — Palash Avoran Kantha Products Boutique — at her center to showcase silk sarees, dupattas, bags, and notebooks produced by her RWEs.
Her husband Sofikul Sekh, who works for West Bengal Grameen Bank, helps her navigate e-government platforms and online banking. “A supportive husband is like having a dedicated business mentor at home,” Jinnu says. With his support, she has helped 40 community members secure bank loans and 20 obtain Kisan Credit Cards.
When mothers-in-law and husbands become gateways rather than gatekeepers — amplifying women’s entrepreneurial aspirations and digital access — they dismantle invisible barriers that have systematically obstructed women’s economic participation and society’s progress.
