The statistics ministry on Monday said that it plans to make several changes to its flagship informal sector survey – the Annual Survey of Unincorporated Sector Enterprises (ASUSE) – with a key proposal being the addition of questions “to capture gender-specific constraints faced by female entrepreneurs” in operating and managing their business.

This, the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) said, will increase the breadth of information available and help inform policy discussions on women’s participation in economic activity.

The new questionnaire – comments on which are invited by November 15 – asks if any “women-specific constraints” have affected the participation of women in the activities of establishments owned by female proprietors.…