Unleashing the potential of Women in rural India: Skill Training supported by Fund for Work

The exodus of migrants witnessed by the globe highlighted the disparity in economic growth and job opportunities between rural and urban parts of developing countries, of which India stole all the limelight. Forced out of jobs, and moved back to villages with no social security and savings to support families amidst the lockdowns, males shared the greatest burden to keep their families surviving. Females, on the other hand, lacked the skills to provide alternate income for their families. Paving way for economic recovery from the pandemic, Government pushed towards shifting economic centres to villages to create sustainable employment opportunities.

Caritas India took steps towards empowering women by training them on livelihood skills which will create a stable income source thereby reducing the dependency on males. At the village level, certain popular trade skills which women could learn even with their hectic household chores were emphasized. More than 585 females received free of cost training through these centres and courses for about 3 months. Key achievements of the centres have been shown in the infographic below. Following were some approaches, adopted by the field team in the identification of such in-demand skills and conducting training:

1. Meetings and Group consultations with SHGs, community leaders, and females to identify training as per the area’s needs and feasibility.
2. Identification of qualified trainers for the identified skills.
3. Identification of training cost and professional fees.
4. Commencement of training & monitoring of the centres.