An exploratory study on predicting the performance of rural women health entrepreneurs
Student name: Ms Swati Saigal
Guide: Dr Papiya Guha Mazumdar
Year of completion: 2014
Host Organisation: Abt Associates India
Supervisor (Host Organisation): Mr Ashish Sinha
Abstract: India’s progress towards attaining the health focused millennium development goals of
reducing child mortality and improving maternal health by 2015 has been slow and uneven.
Existing wide disparities across the states and within the socio-economic groups inhibits
country’s acceleration in progress. Nearly 70 percent of country’s population live in rural areas
wherein people have limited access to essential health products and services due to social,
geographic and economic barriers.
Recently, market-based health interventions have emerged in addressing the health needs of
country’s rural population by facilitating the private sector coverage in otherwise ‘hard to
reach’ rural areas. Market-based approach to public health issues has resulted in another
typology of community based health workers – that of health entrepreneurs. Community based
women health entrepreneurs are engaged for ensuring both ‘demand generation’ and ‘service
provision’.
One of the purported benefits of taking an entrepreneurial approach is ensuring the
effectiveness of health agent in addressing community needs. However, even with an adequate
provision of supplies and strong skill base, effectiveness depends on the interest and ability of
enterprising individual to perform. The present study explores in detail these entrepreneurial
behavioural aspects and attempts to identify the key parameters that play a role in defining a
successful rural health entrepreneur.
Findings suggest that contextual factors influence the attitude, beliefs, intentions and behaviour
of an entrepreneur. Understanding one’s network can help predicting the behaviour and
performance, as it is itself indicative of the values held important. Issue of unmet need has its
solution in information flow through informal channels rather than formal institutions as a
continued message has to go within the community and take route in daily conversations. This
requires someone from within the community with the capability of establishing linkages.
Keywords: Rural women entrepreneurs, Community health workers, Entrepreneurial
behaviour, Entrepreneurial competency and Social embeddedness
