The situation of women in our country is really poor. For centuries, in the name of religion and socio-cultural practices, women have been deliberately denied growth opportunities in the country. The girls are expected to help around the house in rural areas and the majority of the families are poor, which makes it difficult to provide education for all their children. Because of this, girls are kept for housework.
Women in India, are mostly dependent on male members of their family for their financial needs and generally in the villages male member of the family take lead in livelihood activities but women are not allowed to go out for work and also do not get equal respect & chance to grow or earn livelihood. Hence women do not get financial independence and remain dependent on husband, brother, father, uncle etc.
On the other hand, due to Covid-19 lockdown, many poor families lost their livelihood and it has become difficult to live a quality life. Many of them were earlier employed in various Construction sites, factories, retail market, farming, security guard, Gardner, Housekeeping, catering, taxi, auto driver etc.
- The International Labour Organization cited in their 2018 report that women perform 76.2% of unpaid care work worldwide, more than three times what men do.
- As per the latest statistics, while 67% of all men of working age are employed, it is only 9% in the country for women.
- According to the World Bank, Indian women’s contribution to the GDP is 17% which is less than half the global average.
Objectives
- Help poor women to become financial independent.
- Help local people to get benefits from various camps & workshops.
Solutions: My Village My Business
Under this program we encourage women from villages to start own business in their communities (village) and earn livelihood & due respect in the society. We provide seed funding, business handling Skills, Business mentoring, market Linkages, research, product selection, Training, Exposure visits and other related business support to make the selected women a successful entrepreneur in villages.
Following are the key steps:
A. Mobilization: We launch the program by finalizing the list of villages where we need to start the “My village My Business” initiative and we initiate mobilization in the villages to identify the women who are poorest of poor and have basic skills to run a business. Below are few examples of businesses can be started by women in their own villages / communities.
- Tailoring & Fashion cloth making
- Sanitary Napkin Making
- Shoes & Sleeper Making
- Cosmetic & Grocery Shop
- Masala (Spice), Daal packing
- Handicraft products
- Bangle Making
- Agarvatti Making
- Vegetable Shop
- Bakery shop – Biscuit,
- Toast, Chocolate
- Cloth Bags
- Manufacturing
- Stationary Shop
- Beauty Parlor Shops
B. Selection process: After mobilization, women candidates undergo a selection process of personal interviews, group meetings, family background check, domicile status verification, business space availability, market accessibility, ability to maintain books of account, nominal investment capability and most important family support to understand success in her business.
C. Financial Support: The amounts we provide to every woman vary from INR 8,000 to 10,000 per woman based on the type of business and her current capability to invest in her own business.
D. Business Launch support: Our volunteer team ensures enough buzz in the village to make local people aware and increase her client base as soon as the business is launched.
E. Business promotional activities: Below are some of the activities we have been organizing in different villages to increase footfall at women’s shop and the respective women get chance to build relationship with customers and lead the activities in her village so that she get respect in the village as a change leader.
- Medical Camp with free medicines.
- Seminar on Financial Literacy in each village.
- Self Help Group Awareness Workshop.
F. Local Skill Development: Under this initiative, we also encourage our women entrepreneurs to provide vocational skill (Tailoring, Beauty Parlor, Computer, Cooking etc.) training as per this business to local youth.
G. Monthly Business Mentoring support: This is a unique feature of this project as many of the people can provide business equipment e.g. Tailoring machine, Beauty Parlor set up etc. but rarely anyone partner with the women to make sure they are successful in the respective business.
H. Market Linkage: Network on Women Entrepreneurs: As the women’s business grows few women start production of some products e.g. Clothes, Bags, School uniform, Women wear, Dairy products, Pickle, Papad etc. hence they need a market place to sell these products and get regular orders. So we connected all the women through a whatsapp group so that they can buy, sell and show case their products to other women. We have also encouraged all the women to create their own customer’s whatsapp group and share products of other women’s too.
Outcome – Short Term
Following are some of the expected outcome of the program if we want to support 100 Women.
-
- 100 women would become successful women entrepreneurs in their own communities.
- Improve quality of life of more than 500+ family members.
- Women would earn Rs. 3000-10000 monthly from their own businesses.
- 50% women will get Udyam Adhaar registration under MSME schemes.
- 5000+ local people get benefits from businesses promotional activities organized in villages: medical camps, Women health, financial literacy workshops etc.
Outcome – Long Term
- Culture of Self-employment or Entrepreneurship would be developed in the region.
- More number of women would become self reliant.
- Women would get financial independence & respect in the society.
- Most villages would have active women change leaders to help local people.
- Better Education, Health &Future of families in the villages.
- Active use of Self help group method to develop habit of savings.
- Better awareness about community welfare activities among local people.
Beneficiaries
For Women Entrepreneurship, we identify poor Women, who are interested to start their own businesses. Following are some of the parameters we consider during selection of beneficiaries:
- Women whose family income is low.
- Women who are housewives/widows/Single mother and not engaged in livelihood activities.
- Women from BPL, Antyodaya or other low income group as per govt guidelines.
- Women, who are skilled and have interest to start a business.
- Villages where selected business has opportunity to grow and earn livelihood.
- Women who have the family support & enough space to run a business full time.
Locations
This project is replicable, measurable & scalable so we can implement this project anywhere in India.
