How business giants are taking initiatives for the welfare of women

A lot needs to be done for the welfare of rural and underprivileged women and while the government has started schemes for their benefit, now big businesses too have launched initiatives for them.

A lot needs to be done for the welfare of rural and underprivileged women and while the government has started schemes for their benefit, now big businesses too have launched initiatives for them. Two such initiatives have been taken by organisations like The Body Shop and Hindustan Zinc, as a part of their Corporate Social Responsibility.

Cosmetic brand The Body Shop India has recently partnered with Plastics for Change (PFC) India Foundation to ring in the festive season with a difference for female waste pickers. Project NARI is a grassroots initiative for female waste pickers in partnership with PFC Foundation in Bengaluru, Karnataka, focussed on four vital pillars namely Nutrition - Ability - Retraining - Inclusion.

The Body Shop has set up Project 'NARI' fundraising to support women waste pickers and has also set up Project 'NARI' donation boxes across all its stores and online for voluntary consumer donations of INR 20 from its customers. For every customer donation, the Body Shop will donate an equivalent amount for this cause. Through this, the cosmetic giant aims to create awareness and raise up to Rs 5 million over the next six months for Nutrition, Ability, Retraining and Inclusion needs of female waste pickers.

The company and PFC India Foundation will provide PPE kits, provide access to safe nutrition, healthcare awareness, and most importantly training and development of female waste-pickers towards becoming plastic quality engineers. "While we have a global partnership with Plastics for Change, we are also working to create real impact for our female waste-pickers in India who are facing an unprecedented threat to their lives and livelihoods due to Covid19," said Shriti Malhotra, CEO, The Body Shop India.

Another such initiative 'Sakhi' has been taken up by Hindustan Zinc with an aim to make rural women self-employable and to economically and socially empower them. 'Sakhi' initiative, which is a flagship project of the company, has been operating across five districts of Rajasthan and one district of Uttarakhand since 2016.

The project has empowered over 26,000 women from rural and tribal villages surrounding its operational sites by institutionalising them through 3 tier structures of Self-Help Groups (SHGs) as a base, village organizations as the middle tier, and federations as the top tier. Each SHG is a collective of 10-15 women from a specific locality and starts with thrift saving and inter-loaning activities. Women in SHGs soon start benefitting through important social, economic, and psychological support from their peers.

"Sakhi means a friend in Hindi, someone who stands by in trying times and during jubilation too. 26500+ women from across 2212 SHG's and 6 Federation have come together to be the same for each other by making micro-finance work for them," said Anupam Nidhi, head CSR, Hindustan Zinc Limited. "Sakhi is a platform of rural women which aims at economic well-being, reduction in poverty, self-dependence, and development of personal and social standing in the society through establishing micro-finance and micro-enterprises," added Nidhi.

The economic empowerment of women is the key objective of 'Sakhi' project. Hence 'Sakhi' women are encouraged to start their own micro-entrepreneurial activities while many women are encouraged to expand or revamp their existing enterprises. Sakhi SHG program, in partnership with Saheli Samiti and Manjari Foundation, has a mission to form 2,300 SHGs touching the lives of 27,000 families in 5 years by empowering women socially and economically. (ANI)

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)