Introduction After independence, the Indian Constitution abolished untouchability and the erstwhile untouchbles came to be known as the

Scheduled Castes (SCs). A comprehensive schedule or list of SCs was drawn up through the Constitution Order 1950 for purposes of targeting in development programs, compensatory policies to amend for prior discrimination, and policies to prevent violence against untouchables. Concomitant to these administrative classifications, several sub-castes within the SC category started using a self-preferred appellationEthnic minoritys, or the oppressed people. The term politically united them in a process more empowering than the identification by their individual names, which were, and continue to be associated with ritually impure occupations. The situation of Ethnic minoritys has undergone dramatic transformation over time. Compensatory policies like reservations in public education and employment and protective legislation like the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 have aided this process; and a history of protest movements has amplified the voice of Ethnic minoritys. Some argue that economic growth and processes such as migration have transformed caste by providing new opportunities for Ethnic minoritys to move away from their traditional, ritually impure occupations (Prasad 2008, 2009a, 2009b). But these changes come across more strongly in micro level evidence and do not add up to a consistent national picture. Academic writings on caste have invariably tended to look at it as a traditional system of social hierarchy and culture, which is expected to weaken and eventually disappear with the process of development or modernization. Caste was thus researched in relation to rural social order, kinship networks, religious life or traditional occupations, and mostly by social anthropologists and sociologists. Economists who worked on hard questions of development rarely treated caste as a relevant area of inquiry. In the mainstream understanding of text book economics, development or market were essentially secular or socially neutral and anonymous processes. Similarly, the social science understanding of entrepreneurship has typically revolved around the notion of a rational individual operating in a supposedly free-market economy. In its attempt to respond to emerging challenges of post-Cold War world India initiated a process of reforms in its economic policy during the early 1990s. These reforms proved to be an important turning point for the country in many different ways. Under the new regime, the state began to withdraw from its direct involvement with the economy. Private enterprise was allowed and encouraged to expand into areas of economic activity that were hitherto not open to it. it is during the post-1991 period that the private capital in India experienced expansion at an unprecedented rate. This expansion was not merely in terms of growth rates and profits, India also experienced an important ideological shift during the 1990s. The socialist rhetoric that had been so central to the Nehruvian idea of planned development lost its charm. Markets and middle classes came to occupy the centre stage of Indias cultural landscape, displacing the emblematic village and its poor peasants. The Nehruvian state had also worked-out its own modes of dealing with those who had historically been on the margins of Indian society. The quotas or reservations in government sector jobs and state funded educational institutions was the core of the state policy for the development of Scheduled

Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs). Growing privatization of Indias economy and declining avenues of employment in the state sector also meant shrinking of jobs available under the quota system for reserved categories. The expanding role of private sector in technical and professional education could similarly contract the space given to the historically marginalized groups in Indias higher education system. It was in response to the growing restiveness among a section of the Ethnic minority intellectuals about this negative implication of liberalization policy that the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) proposed extension of the quota system for SCs and STs to the private sector upon coming to power at the Centre in 2004. In its National Common Minimum Programme. Apart from the proposal of extending the quota regime to the private sector, there have also been proposals of encouraging and supporting direct participation of the historically marginalized groups into the private economy as entrepreneurs and capital holders.Though the State is called upon to play an active role in the process by provision of economic support through loans and regulation of markets, the emphasis is on development of entrepreneurial culture that can enable Ethnic minoritys to participate in the private sector and informal economy on equal terms. However Ethnic minoritys are not only poor, they also face discrimination in the market. It would nevertheless be nave to dismiss the changes in caste dynamics, more so over the past two decades. Economic opportunities today are very different from those at any other time and the expanding economic status of many Ethnic minoritys in the wake of migration and increased urbanization has helped break down to an extent old caste norms, and has strengthened Ethnic minority confidence and collective self-esteem. Bust still most Ethnic minority entrepreneurs face problems varying from difficulty in getting enough supplies on credit, lack of social networks, absence of kin groups in the business, and control of traditionally dominant business-caste groups. These, along with other social variables such as lack of social capital, make the Ethnic minority situation in India more complicated and vulnerable to homogeneous categorization Not only did the Socialist rhetoric grow mute, but emerging markets and middleclass came to occupy the central stage. The paper focuses on Selfemployed Ethnic minoritys in business and small-scale entrepreneurship. Apart from reflecting on the consequences of expanding private sector, such as constriction of the space of historically marginalised groups in India; the paper addresses unsought questions of collective prejudice emanating from tradition which has not only crippled their prospects in the markets but are known to shape their selfimage and identification. It is argued that while the available data provides broader indications of the employment patterns yet questions related to the patterns of their social and economic mobility, kinds of barriers encountered in the process of setting up their enterprises remain unanswered. Indeed, it becomes important to explore the issues of how and in what ways caste matters in business and entrepreneurship, specifically in subtle mannerism and bias; varying from difficulty in getting enough supplies on credit, lack of social networks, absence of kin groups in the business and control of traditionally dominant business caste groups. These along with other social variables such as lack of social capital, make the Ethnic minority situation in India more complicated and vulnerable to homogeneous categorization.

Caste is a social and political reality that haunts the Ethnic minority entrepreneurs and not mere past tradition or value-system that is found incompatible with contemporary market economy In India Ethnic minoritys are still slotted into their traditional occupations, which are manually based and really a form of low level wage employment. Those who do think of moving into self-employed ventures fail to do so out of fear of social pressure and potential loss of sub-caste networks that serve as sources of mutual insurance.

Objective In specific terms, the objectives of the study can be enumerated as follows:
y y

To study the pattern of their social and economic mobility. To understand the kinds of barriers do they encounter in the process of setting-up their enterprise and in carrying-on with their businesses. To find out the nature of difficulties they encounter in getting bank loans and raising money from the market. To find any kind of discrimination in the process of their interactions with different kind of markets; To study the areas where they concentrated and if so for what reasons.

Methodology The study is largely based on analytical approach. It entails collection of information from secondary and primary sources. The methodology adopted for the intensive study was such that it could effectively collect the facts to evaluate the entrepreneurial challenges for SC persons in India and assess their impact to successfully achieve the objectives of the study. For this purpose both secondary and primary sources were used.

Primary Sources: Field interviews Questioners Secondary Source: Journals

Magazines Statistical Reports by Govt. and NGO, etc.

Expected Outcomes of the study This research will help to understand lots of issues about entrepreneurship related to SC and ST moreover research work results and finding can be published in research paper and help to understand issue critical for policy formulation. As per expectation results may be as given below.
y

Research work can help to conceptualised and theoretically understand social exclusion and discrimination in contemporary world. It will help to develop methods and measuring tools for the study of discrimination and exclusion in social, cultural, political and economic spheres of everyday life and their consequences. Study will help to undertake empirical research on measuring forms, magnitude and nature of discrimination in multiple spheres. It may help to understand the impact of social exclusion and discriminatory practices on inter-group inequalities, poverty, human right violations, inter-group conflicts and economic development of the marginalised social categories. It may help to propose policy interventions for building an inclusive society through empowerment of the society excluded groups in India and elsewhere in the world. It will help to provide knowledge support and training to civil society actors.

Status of Recent Research at n ational level related to the problem (with recent references) However at the national level research are going on few of them were conducted by government of Indian and some of them were by independent researcher with different purpose and to enhance understanding about the area.

Title: Dalit Entrepreneurs Add Glitter to Star Cast of India: Capitalism in sinews and jobs in their kitty, the new poster boys become the toast of Corporate India. The aim of the study: This study is about few of entrepreneurs belongs to ethnic minority and their way to become glittering stars. This study was conducted in the suburban areas of Mumbai. Researcher: Naren Karunakaran, The Economic Times Mumbai. Title: Dalit in Business: Self-Employed Scheduled Castes in Northwest India The aim of the study: Study was taken a place in Haryana and uttar Pradesh to know about the selfemployed SCs and the situation they faced to established their businesses. Researcher: Surinder S. Jodhka, IIDS, New Delhi.

Title :Entrepreneurial Challenges for SC Persons in India

The aim of the study: The study was based on on five states viz. Bihar, Maharashtra, Punjab, West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh, to figure out the problems and challenges for SC persons in india.

Researcher: Planning Commission of India.

Status of Recent Research at intern ational level related to the problem (with
recent references)

At the international level fertile study of immigrant and ethnic minority entrepreneurship has prospered Number of research programme in a traditional way through; reports, conference papers, articles and theses are going on.

Details are given as below.

Title :Ethnicity, Forms of Capital, Mixed Embeddedness and Immigrant Entrepreneurship in Sweden The aim of the study: In this study a statistical multi-level analysis will be performed to measure the determinants of entrepreneurship at different levels the individual, group and municipality/regional level and to analyze how these determinants interact. Researcher:Per Broome, Malm Institute for Studies of Migration, Diversity and Welfare (MIM), Malm University

Title: Somalis Becoming Entrepreneurs The aim of the study: In this study a number of Somalis, presumably belonging to different ethnic subgroups, will be followed and interviewed on the path to entrepreneurship in different environments (municipalities). Researcher: Benny Carlsson, Department of Economic History, Lund University

Title: Immigrants Business Plans: Ethnicity as a Resource for Entrepreneurship The aim of the study: The aim is to find out how a broader set of immigrant entrepreneurs identify and formulate their business ideas, and their strategies to exploit their ideas.

Researcher: Tobias Schlin, Malm Institute for Studies of Migration, Diversity and Welfare (MIM), Malm University Title : Policy Implementation on Immigrant Entrepreneurship: An International Benchmarking Study The aim of the study: the question is what different countries and welfare regimes can learn from each other. Answers will be sought by comparing how immigrant entrepreneurs are treated, support measures designed and good practices developed within three countries representing each of Esping -Andersens three types of welfare capitalism regimes: the liberal regime of U.K., the conservative-corporatist regime of Germany and the social democratic regime of Sweden. Researcher: Monder Ram, Centre for Research in Ethnic Minority Entrepreneurship (CREME), Leicester

Business

School,

De

Montfort

University,

United

Kingdom

Title : SOCIAL DISCRIMINATION IN INDIA: A CASE FOR ECONOMIC CITIZENSHIP

The aim of the study : In this study attempt to analyse social discrimination and its manifestations, and
to suggest possible strategies at the conceptual level to tackle it. Howevere the task of realising such strategies is beyond the scope of this research. Researcher : Barbara Harriss and Aseem Prakash, Oxford University, United Kingdom

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Jodhka, S. 2008. A Forgotten Revolution: Revisiting Agrarian Change in Haryana., Paper prepared for the World Bank report Poverty and Social Exclusion in India. New Delhi: Indian Institute of Dalit Studies, New Delhi. Jodhka, S., and S. Gautam. 2008. In Search of a Dalit Entrepreneur: Barriers and Supports in the Life of Self -Employed Scheduled Castes. Paper prepared for the World Bank report Poverty and Social Exclusion in India. New Delhi: Indian Institute of Dalit Studies, New Delhi.

Caste discrimination and social justice in sri lanka : an overview by kalinga tudor silva, pp sivapragasam and paramsothy thanges, volume III number 06,2009 Caste-based discrimination in south asia: a study of Bangladesh, iftekhar udding chowdhury, volume III number 07,2009 Caste based discrimination in Nepal, Krishna b. bahattachan , tej b. sunar and yasso kanti bhattachan volume III 01,2010 Diversity , discrimination or difference : case study aotearoa/ new Zealand, patrica maringi G. Johnston, volume IV number 01,2010 Weblinks:
http://www.entrepreneur.lu.se/en/research/ethnicminorityentrepreneurship (10 Aug,2011) http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/ (03 Aug,2011) http://india.wsj.com/home-page (03 Aug,2011) http://www.livemint.com/2011/07/18150009/The-rise-of-Dalit-entrepreneur.html (13 Aug,2011) http://business.in.com/article/breakpoint/dalit-entrepreneurs-from-job-seekers-to-jobgivers/25772/1 (11 Aug,2011)

Forbes Outlook Business Week Dalal Street Wall street Journal

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