ETASHA Society

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Empowering Women For A Better Tomorrow

Women

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The Need

India is one of the fastest-growing economies in the world, yet there is a significant gender disparity in the country. Women and girls make up nearly half of the population, representing half of its potential, but face poor economic representation due to patriarchal practice of restricting the mobility of girls and women and keeping them home-bound. This limits their education, skills and opportunities in the labour market.

At the same time, the high cost of living puts pressure on many married women to seek employment. However, due to a lack of marketable skills, they often end up in low-paying jobs, such as house help or low-skilled factory work. This perpetuates a cycle of low income and low self-esteem, which affects their standing within both their families and society.

Empowering women is crucial for economic growth, social development, and achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 5: Gender Equality. By empowering women, upgrading /developing marketable skills, and increasing their participation in the workforce, we can create a more equal society that benefits everyone, ensuring better health care, nutrition, and education for families.

What We Do

ETASHA Society is dedicated to promoting gender equality and empowering women from underprivileged communities. We support women between the ages of 35 and 65 in becoming socially and financially self-reliant, whether as individuals or as group entrepreneurs. Our programs are tailored to the specific needs of women from disadvantaged backgrounds, with the ultimate goal of fostering their social and financial independence.

While all our programs for adolescents and youth prioritize gender parity, ensuring at least 50% participation of girls, we recognize the unique challenges faced by older women in our communities. Therefore, we specifically focus on supporting women in this age group. By empowering them to become self-reliant, we aim to create role models and changemakers who can inspire others and transform their families and communities.

Our Programs

Women Entrepreneurship Program

This program aims to empower stay-at-home women who may be illiterate or semi-literate to generate income through self-owned and managed enterprises. We achieve this by helping them set up and manage their own enterprises after providing training in life and technical skills, as well as business management.

How We Do?

We follow a comprehensive and structured approach to empower women through education, skills development, and entrepreneurship. We employ a range of strategies to foster women empowerment and ensure their success in overcoming barriers and achieving self-reliance. The approach includes:

01.Awareness Building

Our awareness-building campaigns focus on educating communities about the importance of empowering women, the potential for income generation, and the possibilities for women to thrive as individuals and entrepreneurs. We use community meetings, home visits, pamphlet distribution, posters, and collaboration with local NGOs and self-help groups to spread the message and create a positive outlook on women's empowerment and entrepreneurship.

02.Mobilisation

We help women transition from expressing a vague desire to earn money to actively pursuing self-owned enterprises or employment opportunities. We help women realize their potential by guiding them to learn multiple skills, including those required to run an organization independently, and encouraging them to invest in creating value for their business.

03.Exposure and Training

We provide a range of training opportunities to equip women with the necessary skills for success. This includes basic life skills, language and numeracy skills, digital literacy, and specialized technical skills, depending on the chosen enterprise. We also provide training in enterprise management, covering essential topics such as marketing, sales, accounting, taxation, quality control, and operations. Field visits and hands-on learning experiences ensure that our trainees gain practical insights into various aspects of running a business.

04.Assistance In Enterprise Set-Up

We support women in the crucial steps of establishing their enterprise, from business idea identification and feasibility assessment to vendor identification, developing market linkages, and acquiring necessary licenses and permissions. We also hand-hold the women in managing the operations until the business stabilizes to a steady level of profitability and growth.

05.Scale-Up Assistance

As women-run enterprises stabilize, we provide ongoing support to help them scale up. This includes identifying new market opportunities, developing additional products, enhancing production processes, and expanding their market reach. We also help them with all relevant registrations and certifications required for connecting with government schemes and bank loans for scaling up.

Adult literacy program

The program aims to empower women with basic literacy skills, including the ability to sign their names, read simple texts, and manage basic household accounts. To achieve this, the CBFL (Computer-Based Functional Literacy) software, created by TCS, is utilized to provide engaging and interactive lessons in numeracy and language skills.

Reach & Impact

5,157 +

WOMEN ENGAGED

425 +

WOMEN ENROLLED IN ADULT LITERACY PROGRAM

423 +

WOMEN TRAINED FOR ENTREPRENEURSHIP

190 +

WOMEN SET UP SELF-OWNED ENTERPRISES

Projects Covered

  • Women

    #1

    Project Mazbooti

    The project has been operating since Feb 2021 in the urban slum community of Sangam Vihar in South Delhi to help women who are interested in setting up self-owned or group-owned enterprises or who had to close down their businesses due to the pandemic and are keen to re-start. The program offers training in essential life skills, enterprise management, and technical skills, as well as financial assistance for equipment and working capital, in the form of a zero-interest seed money.

    In FY 2023-24, the scope of the project has been expanded to cover Dakshinpuri, Tigri and surrounding areas along with Sangam Vihar. Project Mazbooti, supported by Paul Wurth India, now supports 38 on-going women-owned enterprises while helping set up many more.

    Funded By: Paul Wurth India
  • Women

    #2

    Project Aarambh

    The project is operating in the slum and slum resettlement colonies of Mangolpuri and Sultanpuri in North-west Delhi, builds on the work initiated in 2017-18 through ‘Project Mazbooti’ supported by Sapient and followed by ‘Project Women of Substances’ supported by IDFC (previously CFL).

    Currently, Project Aarambh provides support to 26 Enterprises, with many of them nearing the status of 'Shining Stars,' where women entrepreneurs are fully self-reliant and successfully running sustainable enterprises.

    Funded By: Looking For Sponsor

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