Women Empowerment

Goal

To promote women’s empowerment – economically and socially.

Partnerships

With Manjari Foundation, Hanuman Van Vikas Samiti, Centre of Values – CosV, CSC Academy, GoIT

Impact

• 24,130 Women benefited through Sakhi, including the microenterprises initiative
• 2,043 Self Help groups
• 196 Villages and village organisations across 7 locations in 8 districts in the states of Rajasthan and Uttarakhand
• 12 Microenterprises developed

Key highlights

• Launched Uthori Awareness programme with 91,000 beneficiaries, including 10,000 students
• Ms. Manju Meena, Federation Leader of the Zawar-Sakhi Shakti Samiti of 5,000 women, honoured by XLRI Jamshedpur in the category of Social Entrepreneurship in Tribal Areas
• ₹100+ crore cumulative credit, with ₹10+ crore cumulative interest generated

Sakhi

• Sakhi (derived from Sanskrit, the word ‘Sakhi’ means friend or companion)
• Works towards empowerment of women by making them financially and individually independent through sustainable grassroots institutions like federations, village organisations, self-help groups (SHGs) and microenterprises
• Provides leadership platforms, like federation heads, its members, and farmer producer organisations, that currently have 33% community women on their Board of Directors
• Ownership and entrepreneurship among women stand at an all-time high, through our homegrown brands like “Upaya” for apparel and “Daichi” for edibles, developed by Sakhi women; “Gauam” for dairy products produced by farmers, and Hearts with Fingers – the apex marketing body
• Cadre development for financial management, legal awareness, and community leadership, among other such initiatives, enable capacity building in identified talents across Hindustan Zinc

Major Activities & Achievements during FY 2023-24

• 7 federations across 7 operational areas at Rajasthan & Uttarakhand strengthened to take over and sustain the responsibilities of 2,052 SHGs
• 200+ Sakhi women trained to create a financial taskforce through book-keeping workshops
• Three-day non-residential Uthori training organised for spreading awareness amongst 213 Federation and Village Organisation (VO) leaders about gender-related issues, rights and legal provisions for women
• Launched Uthori programme reaching 91,000 beneficiaries for societal change advocating on critical issues such as domestic violence, child marriage, etc.
• Cumulatively, 7,351 loans worth ₹17.03 crore disbursed so far through family-based livelihood Programme (FBLP)
• 5,076 applications to various government schemes facilitated so far through Sakhi Sewa Kendra
• 2,500 women given training on financial and digital literacy by the Digital Sakhis in Chittorgarh
• 9,000+ rural women came together to celebrate Sakhi Utsav
• ₹ 19+ crore cumulative savings

IPPB

A partnership was entered in with India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) for promoting financial inclusion amongst the unbanked and underbanked communities in our operational villages. The initiative aims at doorstep delivery of banking and insurance services to the remotest corners of these geographies and making transactions cash-lite within and between the institutions of Sakhi, as well as in general.