Dalit Entrepreneurship in Public Policy

This paper critically examines the performance of key public policy schemes—MUDRA, Stand-Up India, the SC Venture Capital Fund, and the 4% Public Procurement Policy—aimed at fostering Dalit and Adivasi entrepreneurship in India. Despite their ambitious mandates, empirical evidence reveals that SC-ST entrepreneurs remain severely underrepresented in high-value credit categories and government procurement contracts. Drawing on secondary data, field interviews, and theoretical insights, the paper argues that structural caste-based exclusion persists within formal credit institutions, undermining the efficacy of these schemes. It critiques the neo-classical and new institutional economic frameworks that dominate policy thinking, highlighting their failure to account for social hierarchies and informal biases in credit access. Lived experiences of Dalit entrepreneurs illustrate how legal property rights and merit are often insufficient to secure institutional credit due to entrenched discrimination. The paper calls for caste-sensitive reforms in financial policy to ensure genuine inclusion and equitable entrepreneurial growth

Empirical evidence · Entrepreneurship · Financial inclusion · Government (linguistics · Procurement · Property rights · Public policy · Venture capital · Indian Economic and Social Development · Innovation and Socioeconomic Development · Social and Economic Development in India