Indian Women Getting Empowered With Direct Selling

India's $740-million direct selling industry, where products are sold directly to customers rather than through retail shops, is fast emerging as a viable career option for women, empowering them to earn some decent money from home. While door-to-door selling is a common phenomenon is many localities, the numbers have increased indicating a rise in its potential, especially for women in India. Women grab the best direct selling opportunities. Direct Selling provides accessible business opportunities to people looking for alternative sources of income, and whose entry is generally not restricted by gender, age, education, or previous experience.

According to Annual Survey Report, women contribute almost 58.3 per cent in 2013-14. Women form a significant chunk of direct sellers, and from a current 2,551,189 women, their numbers are expected to grow at eight per cent making a whopping 55,07,820 self-employed women by 2025. Little wonder direct selling has emerged as a woman-friendly field, with 1.22 million becoming a part of the industry in India. The IDSA which is an autonomous, self-regulatory body recognizes the marketing approach as micro-entrepreneurship that can inspire many small home-based initiatives. Initially FMCG or everyday use products were more popular but segments like wellness, cosmetics and personal care dominate the Indian direct selling market which has accelerated women self-employment and empowerment. This year, the industry focus is to further bolster and showcase the entrepreneur opportunity for women. The category in which are involved the most is direct sales cosmetics companies.

Direct selling companies have been helping empower women for over 100 years. The World Bank defines ‘empowerment’ as the process of increasing the capacity of individuals or groups to make choices and to transform those choices into desired actions and outcomes. These common characterizations of empowerment capture some of what is possible for women through direct selling. There are many reasons people get involved with direct selling —the ability to work from home, flexibility, extra income, the opportunity to build a career on your own terms. For women, the capacity to make a choice is a form of empowerment.

For so many women involved in direct selling, the sense of empowerment does not occur overnight. It is akin to a journey, as a woman moves from a customer of the product to promoting it to earn commissions, and eventually becoming a business owner and a leader, by building a team.