GeM’s Womaniya wins scale

India’s Government e-Marketplace says women-led micro and small enterprises won ₹28,000 crore in contracts through Womaniya in fiscal year 2025-26. (pib.gov.in) The Ministry of Commerce and Industry said on April 10 that the total rose 27.6% from the previous year. It said more than 2.1 lakh women-led micro and small enterprises are now registered on the platform, with 13.7 lakh orders booked in 2025-26. (pib.gov.in) Womaniya is a procurement channel inside the Government e-Marketplace, or GeM, India’s online portal for public-sector buying. The initiative lets women entrepreneurs and women’s self-help groups sell directly to government buyers instead of relying on intermediaries. (gem.gov.in, pib.gov.in) The programme began in January 2019 with a focus on categories such as handicrafts, handloom, jute, coir, home décor and office furnishings. The government later described its aim as tackling three recurring barriers for women entrepreneurs: market access, finance and value addition. (pib.gov.in, pib.gov.in) The new fiscal-year figure is narrower than GeM’s broader count for all women-led enterprises on the portal. In January 2026, GeM said women-led enterprises had secured more than ₹80,000 crore in cumulative orders on the marketplace since the initiative’s launch. (pib.gov.in) That distinction helps explain why official numbers differ across releases. A March 2025 government note said 1,77,786 Udyam-verified women micro and small enterprises had fulfilled ₹46,615 crore in cumulative orders, while the April 2026 release isolates Womaniya-linked awards in one financial year. (pib.gov.in, pib.gov.in) GeM has been widening the support system around that seller base. In November 2025, it signed a memorandum with UN Women to bring more women entrepreneurs from the informal sector into public procurement through outreach, capacity building and market linkages. (pib.gov.in) The platform has also tied up with groups including the Self-Employed Women’s Association, known as SEWA, and Usha Silai School for training and onboarding. Those partnerships show the government is treating Womaniya as both a sales channel and a pipeline for first-time suppliers. (pib.gov.in) For now, the headline number is this: one government procurement portal says women-led small businesses booked ₹28,000 crore of work in a single year. The next test is whether that pace holds beyond the current set of product categories and support programmes. (pib.gov.in, gem.gov.in)