Punjab's PEHEL Aims to Create 1.5 Lakh Women Entrepreneurs in 5 Years

By: Women Entrepreneurs Review Team | Friday, 9 October 2026

Punjab’s PEHEL initiative aims to empower women from self-help groups (SHGs) to establish and expand their businesses by combining financial support, technology and structured enterprise development. The program is led by the Punjab Development Commission (PDC) and implemented through the Department of Rural Development, in collaboration with the Gates Foundation, Leap 300 and RoundGlass Foundation.

Beyond providing access to credit, PEHEL focuses on helping women identify suitable business opportunities, prepare their business plans and establish enterprises with ongoing guidance. Over the next five years, the initiative aims to create more than 1.5 lakh women entrepreneurs across Punjab.

As part of the initiative, Leap 300 has introduced an entrepreneurship journey with 300 days of technology support into the existing SHG credit program in Punjab. In this model, support from Sakhi, digital learning and an AI-based Vyapar Mitra would be provided to women to help them choose their business, learn for business and get post business support.

Key Highlights:

• PEHEL aims to create over 1.5 lakh women entrepreneurs through credit, AI and business support
• The program has provided ₹1.1 crore in credit to 237 women across 50 villages
• PEHEL is expanding to nine blocks across Sangrur and Rupnagar

The program has claimed to be able to approve four times more loans each month per block, and report that it takes 12 days to launch a business instead of the three-months previously reported. Till now, 237 women from 50 villages have received a credit of ₹1.1 crore, with 100% of the credit being returned.

The proportion of first-time entrepreneurs has also grown to 45% from 15% and the women who have participated have established businesses in 51 categories such as tailoring, beauty services, tuition centres, electronics, food businesses and repair services. Post launch support is still at more than 90%.

Seema Bansal, Vice-Chairperson, Punjab Development Commission, said, “PEHEL was created to help women translate access to credit into economic opportunity. The results show what becomes possible when finance is combined with the right business choice, structured support and technology.”

Vinod Raghuwanshi, Co-Founder, Leap 300, said, “Credit opens the door. The real breakthrough is helping every woman know what to build before the money arrives — and supporting her as that business grows.”

One of the beneficiaries, Manjeet Kaur of village Munsiwala in Sangrur, has started a beauty parlor and her husband is running a culture cart. The program states that the two businesses have helped the household's income almost double their previous income, which was largely from her husband working in a factory.

Currently, PEHEL is expanding from four blocks in Sangrur to nine blocks in Sangrur and Rupnagar. In the longer term, the program will impact about one lakh women over four years with the existing infrastructure in place in Punjab including SHG, credit, front line agencies etc.

The model is also to be assessed throughout the 300-day program to evaluate the impact of the changes in income, businesses and household outcomes.