Women Empowerment

Women make up half the world’s population, but, in most places, they don’t make up half of its work force. They own only one-third of the world’s formally registered small-and-medium- sized enterprises, yet they provide most of the world’s unpaid child and elder care and are more likely to work in insecure, low-wage jobs in the informal economy. They also are more likely to face legal barriers to full participation in the economy, with limited access to finance, markets, and property.

Research shows that increasing women’s labor force participation by 10 percentage points could add $770 billion to India’s GDP by 2025. When women are empowered economically, they invest in their families and communities, spurring economic growth and creating more stable societies.

That’s the reason we at Vipla Foundation are looking to tackle this issue through this intervention.

Vipla Foundation has been providing employability-oriented skills training to young women since the year 2009. The courses are short- and medium-term modules (45 days to 150 days) of short-term livelihood programs meant for unemployed urban young women between the ages of 18-30 years, from underprivileged families. Most of the young women who are part of the programme are the ones who have dropped out of formal education early, have no or limited skills to find formal employment and can be potential victims of gender-based violence. The average annual family income of our beneficiaries is INR 2.5 lakhs.

The project provides employability skills training to young women from slums around Mumbai and Pune and ensures that 70% trained and certified candidates are successfully placed on the job.

Vipla Foundation partners with renowned technical organizations to provide support for the Training of Trainers and provide government-recognized National Skills Development Corporation (NSDC) and Sector Skills Council (SSC) certification to successful candidates in the Banking and Financial Service Sector, BPO, Sales and Retail and Beauty and wellness. The project also provides life-skills training that runs parallel to employability skills. The sessions on gender, gender-based violence, and laws related to violence against women are included in the core essential skills training.

• Mobilization and orientation of 4000 young women from urban communities in Mumbai and Thane
• Providing employability skills training to 3000 young women from targeted communities
• Ensuring that 90% of enrolled candidates complete training i.e., 2700 women complete training over three years and are certified
• Achieving 70% placement of trained candidates i.e., nearly 2300 women are placed on jobs, suitable to their skills with average starting salary of INR 10000 per month
• To equip beneficiaries with critical life skills and confident decision making in order to exercise their rights on issues affecting them.
• To increase income of beneficiaries through job placement/self-employment and post placement support.

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