SPECIAL CENTRE FOR THE STUDY OF NORTH EAST INDIA
JAWAHARLAL NEHRU UNIVERSITY
MONTHLY SEMINAR SERIES
Women Entrepreneurship in Mizoram and the Use of Digital Media Platforms: Toward Digital Empowerment for Alternative Livelihood, Self-Reliance and Gender Equality
by
Dr. C. Lalmuansangkimi,
Centre for Media Studies,
School of Social Sciences,
Jawaharlal Nehru University
Abstract: At the core of the overall development of any nation, there is entrepreneurship and in recent years, it has gained prominence with the participation of women (Koteswari, Suseela & Leena, 2022). By harnessing the power of digital media in this digital society (Lindgren, 2022), women entrepreneurs are building their businesses, create meaningful connections, learn, promote their businesses and make positive impact in their communities and beyond. While it is encouraging to see many women in Mizoram running their business from the comfort of their homes, they are facing challenges that come with the use of social media platforms for entrepreneurial activities. Women owned small – to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are particularly vulnerable to cybercrime and online fraud as they are typically single-person operations that use unsecured personal devices are easy targets for cybercriminals (Vazquez & Alagaretnam, 2022). To overcome these challenges, there is a need for digital empowerment of women which will provide them strategic approach to pursue their ventures. Therefore, within the contextual framework of bricolage theory of Claude Levi-Strauss (Phillimore et al., 2016), the topic explores women entrepreneurship in Mizoram and ways to accelerate the prospect through digital media platforms for delivering an alternative livelihood, self-reliance and gender equality. It looked into the transformative changes in social actions and practices in the cultural flows (Appadurai, 1996) simultaneously focusing on digital empowerment for providing innovative solutions for problems with emphasis on women entrepreneurs in rural areas and the diffusion of digital media platforms for business.