ACC's Swavlamban Initiative promotes Gender equality, empowers 14399 Women

By: WE Staff | Wednesday, 28 July 2021

ACC Ltd recognises women's empowerment as a critical pillar for sustainable development and has consistently worked to create an equitable environment for community growth.

By promoting gender equality, ACC's Swavlamban initiative has empowered 14399 women. A key focus area of the initiative is ensuring women's sustainable livelihoods and financial independence.

ACC encourages women to form Self Help Groups (SHGs) in and around its operations through Swavlamban. It helps them establish micro-enterprises in order to increase their family income and empower their decision-making abilities. As a result, they are able to establish their rightful place in the community.

SHG members are trained in capacity-building, various individual crafts, marketing skills, accounts, teamwork, and other relevant skills as part of the initiative.

“At ACC, we are committed to creating an inclusive ecosystem for sustainable development of our communities. Through Swavlamban, we will continue to empower our womenfolk and provide them opportunities to improve their quality of lives and earn sustainable livelihoods.” said, Mr. Sridhar Balakrishnan, MD and CEO, ACC Ltd.

ACC Swavlamban, as part of ACC's Livelihood, Employability, and Income Generation pillar, also works to establish old age homes, day care centres, and other facilities for senior citizens, and has put in place measures to reduce inequalities faced by socially and economically disadvantaged groups.

The initiative primarily aims to organise women from marginalised groups into SHGs, orienting them on the concept of self-help, building their capacity for thrift and credit management, bookkeeping, entrepreneurship and micro enterprises, market linkages, and leveraging from government programmes and schemes. Federating these SHGs & JLGs into a registered federation to ensure self governance and sustainability.