The following are some of the major roles played by small scale businesses in rural India.
They generate employment opportunities: Cottage and rural industries play a significant role in providing employment opportunities, particularly to people in rural areas. This proves to be a boon especially for the economically weaker sections of the rural society.
They enable equitable income distribution: The capital requirements of small- scale businesses are low, mainly because of their use of labour-intensive production techniques, and this encourages entrepreneurs to start units on a small scale. Smallscale businesses are, therefore, set up all over the country. Many of them providing employment opportunities to people in rural areas. This triggers the redistribution of wealth and income, and enables the equitable distribution of income in rural areas.
They help to accelerate growth: Small-scale businesses have been considered as a major propeller for the acceleration of economic growth and as an employment generator, particularly in the rural and backward areas of India.
They mitigate disguised unemployment and alleviate poverty: Small-scale businesses use labour-intensive production techniques, and are, therefore, able to provide employment to the excess/surplus rural labour. Thus, small-scale businesses remove disguised unemployment from the agriculture sector and at the same time provide livelihood to the rural people. Hence, they contribute to alleviating rural poverty.
They facilitate rural development and reduce migration from rural to urban areas: It is well known that a large number of people migrate from rural to urban areas in search of better employment opportunities and improved living standards. Small-scale businesses help reduce this migration by providing employment opportunities to rural people in their own regions. By doing so, small units also help mitigate the excessive pressure on urban infrastructure.
