Empowering Women by Building Skills and Entrepreneurship

In 2019, approximately 20.7 per cent women were part of the labor force in India, in comparison to the figure being 30 per cent in 1990. The data questions the impact of the increase in literacy rate among women and their position in India. A report by the Initiative for What Works to Advance Women and Girls in the Economy on ‘Impact of COVID-19 on Working Women’ stated that inadequate mobility, safety and lack of childcare options, sexual harassment inside and outside the workplace, and a fear of being stigmatized by the community are few of the many reasons that restrict women from seeking work or pushes them to drop out of
paid work.
Gender plays an increasingly important role in the economic growth process, both in terms of capacity building for success and the nature of the influence of certain development plans and initiatives. In the case of micro-enterprise approaches, gender becomes especially crucial to consider, as women’s typical home-centered duties can make it far simpler for them to participate in such programs than in more traditional and medium enterprises.

To counter this, the Girl Power Project, implemented by AIILSG in Jharkhand and funded by the European Union, is striving to strengthen the ability of the Indian civil society and its organizations to perform their role as independent agents of change, implanting actions that bring transformative change into the lives of women and girls. The project aims to provide women and girls with skill training and entrepreneurial support centers. Jharkhand Mahila Social Entrepreneurship Market Connect (JMSEMC) has been introduced under the project to act as a single point of contact for women and CSOs to connect them with prospective buyers in the marketplace.
Jharkhand is one of the backward states in India and a high level of illiteracy is witnessed, especially among women and girls, in this region. Due to this they are unable to create opportunities for themselves to chart their path towards growth and development. The following project will involve partners from within the state with innovative models and best practices to build capacities and knowledge of CSOs by engaging them with social enterprises focusing on women and girls. It will also provide skills and competencies for strengthening Self Help Groups (SHGs) and creating social enterprises for empowering women and girls.
Rural markets in India have been growing much faster than the urban sector, resulting in overall social development and a balanced economy. The rural market has more potential than the urban market for consumer’s durables and services.
Also, a majority of the rural population depends on agriculture, which contributes to nearly 50 per cent of the total national income. Starting your own enterprise comes with its own advantages and disadvantages. Women establishing and running their own enterprise come with added responsibilities and obstacles. During the Baseline Survey, it was visible that there were a lot of obstacles that existing women entrepreneurs had to face on a daily basis in operating their enterprises. Women encounter significant challenges in marketing of goods and services. Lack of awareness of new products in the urban market, as well as technical skills in business administration, are major obstructions. Not only this, the remote location from the market also results in increased transportation costs.
The Girl Power Project is focusing on Building self-esteem and capacity through counselling, life skills training, and mentoring support through the entire journey of self-development and growth. This includes support in making a decision, capacity building, and work opportunities, as well as overcoming barriers.
It focuses on market-led enterprise-building, which is identifying gaps in already functioning value chains so that one knows where the maximum margins can be made to benefit the informally employed poor, create quality entrepreneurs for growing the business, laying emphasis to serve a variety of market segments and women with varying levels of capacities and social constraints. The integration aims to support women and girls to move forward confidently in new market situations.

The integration allowed for linking women’s roles in the enterprise, their needs, and therefore their rights, and hence builds perspective; it is less threatening for the ecosystem than directly addressing violence against women; it is novel to have mainstreamed domestic violence issues into core business-oriented training and hence has strategic value in many contexts.
Several reports after the pandemic highlight how the novel coronavirus has aggravated the gender challenge in India given the societal roles of ‘breadwinner men’ and ‘caregiver women.’ An already existing gender gap in terms of access to digital equipment and lack of knowledge on its operation and usage led to a worsened situation for many women during the lockdowns. Availability of agency and the removal of constraints faced by women and girls is essential to ensure sustainable and equitable development of a community, and in turn, a nation. Owing to several policies and campaigns, the literacy rate among women has gradually increased in rural India.
However, literacy directly does not translate into a relevant skillset required for employment and there still exist major historical, social, and cultural hindrances for women and girls, especially in rural areas. In the developing world, India has some of the worst gender statistics. The contribution of women in India to its GDP is only 17 per cent which is one of the lowest in the world. The lack of decently paid and safe work, as well as the existence of a labor surplus economy, has kept women confined to unpaid care jobs, particularly in rural agricultural areas. The female labor force participation rate is one of the lowest in the world. Among those women who do work, most are in unpaid or irregular work, and continue to face tremendous barriers to success. Their creative ability has often gone unnoticed or underutilized.
Focusing on women’s skills development and economic empowerment is one of the most urgent means to drive progress on poverty eradication, gender equality, and social and economic growth. When women and girls gain economic empowerment, the effects are spread across communities. Despite this, they still struggle to take their
rightful place.