India is still striving to empower its rural women and bring them to the mainstream. For decades, women have remained engaged in household chores and ‘unpaid’ works. With growing awareness and increasing education levels, women are excelling in all fields and supporting their families financially. With support from projects like Girl Power, they are learning entrepreneurial skill that is helping us build a more egalitarian society.
Improving the empowerment status of rural women and girls involves personal human rights, social equality, and economic conditions. The experience of women and girls in the newly formed State, Jharkhand is no different; the women are still excluded from their basic rights. Empowering of women and girls implies making a domain in which they can make free choices for their self-awareness and for the betterment of society in all aspects. Empowerment includes enabling women to acquire basic leadership and achieve efficiency in social, economic, and political aspects.
In order to give a boost to the empowerment of women, Girl Power Project funded by the European Union (EU) and implemented by the All India Institute of Local Self-Government (AIILSG) in Jharkhand addresses the objective to strengthen the ability of Indian civil society to perform its role as independent agent of change, implementing actions that bring transformative change in the lives of 5000 women and girls. The project aims for holistic development and empowerment of civil society organisations (CSOs) working on women’s support and empowerment in the State to achieve the objective of the project,and proposes training, skill building, policy dialogue, and network formation. In pursuance of this, the project team needs to establish ten Entrepreneurs Support Centres at the district level to handhold women and girls to become successful social entrepreneurs. It is expected that around 1000 women will avail the benefits of the centres over the project period. These Entrepreneur Support Centres will be attached to 10 selected CSOs/SHGs (Self Help Groups), who have the infrastructure and manpower to conduct these activities. The team has already established two district support centers with the help of CSO members. Starting with the same, first District Entrepreneurs Support Center was established in December at Khunti District with the help of Center for Entrepreneurship. The support center is located in Chalambartoli, 8 kms from Khunti district headquarters on National Highway 75. The total area of the premises is approximately six acres. There are three rooms available with a closed boundary wall. The organisation is currently involved in goat rearing, backyard poultry, organic farming, fishery, and vegetable cultivation.Awareness program was organised at the Entrepreneurs Support Centre in which around 20 women participated. A few of them are already working in poultry, goat rearing, duck rearing and in cultivation of mushroom but are unaware of the technicalities and marketing aspects of their ventures. The women beneficiaries actively discussed with the Girl Power team about future training and capacity building opportunities.
Another district support center was established in Bero Block of Ranchi District with the help of Asia Institute for Sustainable Development. In the coming months, eight more District Entrepreneurs Support Centres will be established in distrcitslike Dumka, Deoghar, Koderma, Hazaribagh, Gumla, West Singhbum, East Singhbum, and Sariakela. As per the scope and interest of women beneficiaries, these support centres will be providing training and capacity building opportunities with appropriate resources.
Benefits of District Entrepreneurs Support Center
The purpose of these District Entrepreneurs Centres is to provide a platform where women can interact with the master trainers and other women beneficiaries who are already running their enterprise and can learn and seek entrepreneurship opportunity for themselves. Apart from this, women will also be provided with the kits which can be utilised for the further hands-on-trainings as well as production activities in the interested area. For example, silk production machinery will be installed at the centre where the women beneficiaries can start the production of silk thread from cocoons. The women and girls who have received the training under the project in the same area will be provided with the kit which will contain cocoon from which they can start the production of the silk thread and further convert into cloth by working in these centres and then they can sell the finished products in the market place. The women artisans will also be trained on effective marketing strategies.
The Girl Power Project also aims to identify similar opportunities which could leverage the sales and generate income towards supporting their livelihoods. The future strategy of the project is to provide an online e-commerce platform through web portal and creating an Instagram store and Facebook shop for such SHGs and women artisans. It will provide a wider market and will directly benefit them and enable generate a stable source of income for their better future. These centers will work under the direct supervision of Jharkhand Mahila Social Entrepreneurship Market Connect (JMSEMC) office of the Girl Power Project and these centers will be treated as nodal cells of JMSEMC.Regular reporting and follow up with verifiable parameters will be put in place to ensure the proper functioning of the centres.
These Entrepreneurs Support Centres will not only cater to the needs of women and girl beneficiaries of that area but will also act as a focal point of contact for the other 90 CSOs (10 primaries and 80 secondary) who have been selected for the project.
The future strategy of the project is to provide an online e-commerce platform through web portal and creating an Instagram store and Facebook shop for such SHGs and women artisans. Itwill provide a wider market and will directly benefit themand enable generate a stable source of income for their better future. These centers will work under the direct supervision of Jharkhand Mahila Social Entrepreneurship Market Connect (JMSEMC) office of the Girl Power Project and these centers will be treated as nodal cells of JMSEMC