While checking out the blogs published on the Harvard website, I came across an interesting one that referred to a study on the relationship between a woman’s health and her employment status. The study was done through a survey of an ethnically diverse group of 4,624 who were either salaried employees, self-employed or working for wages. All were over the age of 50 years.

The results suggest, with disclaimers, that self-employed women might have health advantages over others.

According to the blog, “The study found that women who were self-employed reported 34% lower odds of obesity; 43% lower odds of high blood pressure; and 30% lower odds of diabetes compared to those working for a salary or wages. Meanwhile, self-employed women appeared to have lower body mass index (BMI) and be more physically active, with 80% saying they exercised at least twice a week compared to 72% of other participants.”

This comes as a motivating surprise for the likes of us in VFS, who are trying to help women and their families come out of the grasp of poverty through the self-employment route. Now we have another reason to drive the cause with extra zeal.

But while better health may be a good reason to be self-employed, I think that at the core it is the flexible work environment of self-employed women that helps them live a better life than their employed peers. At least in rural India, where women are not much known to go to the gym for a daily workout session, the benefits of the varied kinds of physical work involved in entrepreneurship far outweigh the repetitive work done by those who are salaried or work for daily wages.

Furthermore, when we look at the livelihood benefits, we may find in most cases, the self-employed are better positioned to enjoy government schemes than those who work for others. For example, a women entrepreneur in agriculture or agri-allied business such as animal rearing may also avail themselves of the benefit of MNREGA, etc., which involves short durations of engagements.

There may be a few cases, like driving Toto autorickshaws or managing a kirana shop, which are full-time engagements in nature, but even in those situations, the work conditions and stress levels may be regulated based on the needs of physical health. These businesses are also fewer in numbers when we look at the rural parts of the country.

If the survey results show that self-employed women have better health than their counterparts holding jobs, I would like to believe that it is true and urge more women to become entrepreneurs.