As per the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS, 2020) only 18.6% of total female population of India participate in labor force. Whereas, as per the 2011, Census, 48% of India’s total population consist of women. This stark difference clearly highlights why skill development is important in India especially for rural women. Women Enterprise Promotion Programme (WEPP) is an initiative by Prayatna to bridge this wide gap of by providing women from rural India a chance to be financially independent.
WEPP work on Prayatna ‘s Enterprise Resource Center (ERC) model wherein we have set up the Enterprise Resource Center (ERC) in the rural community. The ERC acts as the focal point for providing training, and upskilling to the beneficiaries in their preferred vocations, and acts as the hub for the financial and marketing linkages for the produces.
Prayatna started the WEPP project on artificial jewelry making, in the interiors of Dadri, Uttar Pradesh in a small village called Kalonda. Jewelry making has been one of the vocations that has been passed down among the village women through generations. Many women in the village run small time business as jewelry making business at their home and earn less than Rs 3000 a month.
The programme aims to financially empower 100 women by setting up micro enterprises and handhold them till the time they become sustainable. The programme started its formal vocational training sessions from the month of January 2022 and has trained over 100 women. Apart from vocational trainings in jewelry making and embroidery, the women are also being trained on basic stitching, soft skills and enterprise skills which will ensure long term sustainability of their micro enterprises.