Entrepreneurship - Margam

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The world has understood the importance of women empowerment which in turn leads to the socio-economic development of a society. A key instrument for women’s empowerment is the Self Help Groups (SHGs). Women empowerment can be done through SHGs formation, its stabilization and linking with viable micro enterprises.
Self-help groups started by non-profit organizations (NGOs) that generally have broad anti-poverty agendas. Self-help groups are seen as instruments for a variety of goals including empowering women, developing leadership abilities among women in slums, and making them independent . Financial intermediation is generally seen more as an entry point to these other goals. To achieve their goal of financial self contentment the groups are engaged in manufacturing and marketing activities. Production Activities by SHGs and SHG members create a large number of products, some of which compete with branded/market-established products in terms of quality.
Women’s economic empowerment is one such tool as the society at large takes its birth from women. So, women’s economic empowerment is a prerequisite for sustainable development and inclusive or pro-poor growth.

To convert vocational skill training program to a self sustainable Program in the community and to make women  empowered VIDYA is planning to divide this self sustainable program into two phases :

  1. Opening of Self Help Group’s (SHG) – Starting with the formation of small groups, women in these groups will be self-sufficient by saving money in the bank and also earning by taking small orders.
  2. Micro Financing – This plan is long term. After the formation of SHG ,to take it to another level and to create a sustainable model in the community , this microfinance will help. Women can start their own small business by taking small loans from the banks.
 

The goal is an effort to create livelihood opportunities for women living in the urban slum of Mumbai. This project will help them in training ,execution of the plan ,branding and marketing of the products. VIDYA is  exploring and will help the SGH group  with the utility of the SHG business model, its operating mechanism, socio-economic characteristics of the women SHGs and its impact on women empowerment of marginalized communities.

The main objective is to provide economic opportunities to the economically disadvantaged groups to establish and gradually improve their entrepreneurial ambitions through regular and small savings to improve their socio-economic status by organising and participating in their own voluntary and democratic association. It should be clearly understood that the Self-Help Group is a small organization of small people with small objectives. It goes to demonstrate that small efforts can be translated into bigger power.