From WCD's Virtual Platform Launch to Propelling of Start-Up Ecosystem, Government Striving to Consolidate Women Workers

By: WE STAFF | Thursday, 24 September 2020

R.K. Singh, Minister of State for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship has stated that the government is taking several measures to promote rural and tribal entrepreneurship. Government of India, through Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, has taken initiatives for implementing entrepreneurship development schemes and programmes for the youth and women of the country through entrepreneurship education, handholding & mentorship and essential linkages with financial and market institutions.

To encourage women entrepreneurship, Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) is implementing a project named ‘Economic Empowerment of Women Entrepreneurs and Startups by Women’ in collaboration with Deutsche Gesellschaftfür Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) Germany. The project pilots incubation and acceleration programmes for women micro entrepreneurs to start new businesses and scale up existing enterprises in Assam, Rajasthan and Telangana. The project has the target to pilot the incubation programme with 250 women and the acceleration programme with 100 women. The first cohort of the support programme ended in April-May, 2020 and the second cohort has commenced in July, 2020.

Government of India through Department of Financial Services has launched the Stand-up India Scheme to facilitate Bank loans from Scheduled Commercial Banks between Rs. 10 lakh and Rs. 1 crore to at least one scheduled caste or scheduled tribe borrower and at least one women borrower per bank branch for setting up a Greenfield enterprise in trading services or manufacturing sector.

Also to mitigate the impact of Covid-19 and address problems related to food security and nutrition caused by lockdown-induced supply chain disruptions, the Women and Child Development Department (WCD) has launched a novel initiative to empower women farmers and improve linkages between farms and markets. The initiative comprises an e-business platform, which can also be operated offline and collects details about farmers, like the type of produce they supply – cereals, pulses, vegetables, fruits, goats chicken and eggs – as well as variety, quantity and location.

It was launched recently by WCD Minister Yashomati Thakur under the slogan ‘Saksham Mahila, Suposhit Maharashtra’. A team of frontline workers of Mahila Arthik Vikas Mahamandal (MAVIM) – a state women’s development corporation – underwent online training on how to use the e-Business platform to collect information from farmers.