Girl Power
Capacitating CSOs & empowering women & girls through Social Entrepreneurship Working for gender equality with women empowerment has become essential for Indian society to ensure the sustainable development of the country. In Jharkhand, approximately 50 per cent of the working population, between the age group of 15-49 years, is women. It has high level of illiteracy among girls and women, and policy makers are still struggling to create enough employment opportunities for them. Hence, there is a need to promote entrepreneurship and to foster skill building among girls and women thereby creating employment opportunities. AIILSG is implementing Girl Power Project to train 5000 women and provide them required skill-training and technical support for becoming financially independent and successful entrepreneurs
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he Girl Power Project of AIILSG is 5 years long project, which is being implemented in 10 districts of Jharkhand covering 20 blocks namely Dumka, Deoghar, Koderma, Hazairbagh, Khunti, Gumla, Ranchi, West Singhbum, East Singhbum and Saraikela. The project aims to create a network of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and women, which will act as a platform to promote women’s rights. The network includes one Advisory Group, which will give overall direction to the project in terms of CSO capacity building and social entrepreneurship. The project will build capacity of CSOs, including women led CSOs, to empower them on social entrepreneurship. Women will be imparted skills of creating and supporting social enterprises. Based on the inputs from CSO partners, 5000 women are being selected for the project, where they will be trained on various skills. Further on, the project will roll out Entrepreneurs Support Centre Programmes within the targeted CSOs to sustain the action on the long run. Since, developing skills is ineffective without a ready marketplace to sell the products, an innovative nodal centre of Jharkhand Mahila Social Entrepreneurship Market Connect (JMSEMC) will be set up to coordinate the project. A web portal has been developed to showcase the products. Moreover, policy dialogues are encouraged with CSOs and women led entrepreneurs in India and the European Union. At the end of the year, Mahila Social Entrepreneurship Awards will be presented to CSOs who have performed par excellence.
Activities in detail The Girl Power Project was inaugurated on September 15, 2020, by Badal Patralekh, Minister of Agriculture, Cooperation & Farmers Welfare, Government of Jharkhand. In September 2020,
June 2022 www.aiilsg.org
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the CRPs (Community Resource Persons) were briefed about conducting the Baseline Survey in 10 districts. After data collection, different products were identified and training modules based on unskilled, semi-skilled and skilled women beneficiaries were prepared. A total of 15 training modules have been developed. Out of 15, 11 are technical and 4 are non-technical. The identified products in the technical training module includes organic farming, poultry, goat rearing, dairy, fish rearing, mushroom cultivation, lac production, mahua, bee keeping, bamboo craft, and silk processing. Four non-technical training modules that have been developed are soft skill development, government schemes, enterprise & marketing, mainstreaming gender. After preparation of the curriculum, pilot testing was conducted for each producer-based curriculum to perfect it. For customisation purposes, a group was formed which consisted of one CSO, 12 entrepreneurs, three technical experts and the project team. The module was presented and discussed in detail. The training module was then modified based on the feedback received from the group. In September 2021, a capacity building training was organised for 39 women beneficiaries & CSOs on mushroom cultivation and value addition at Churchu block, Hazaribagh district. The CSO Jharkhand Mahila Utthan has a presence in the district and is managing the project beneficiaries there. Three days long training program was organised to orient women beneficiaries on the basics of mushroom cultivation, following which, they could become entrepreneurs. On the occasion of Diwali in 2021, the JMSEMC organised a two-day marketing event on October
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