Flipkart Foundation Partners with Deepalaya to Launch ‘Nari Shakti’ programme for empowering marginalized girls and women

2024-11-24 07:54:12 News & Society

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Gurugram - May 29, 2023: The Flipkart Foundation, under the Flipkart Group, has partnered with Deepalaya, a leading NGO supporting underprivileged women, youth, and children, to launch Nari Shakti, an innovative programme that aims to empower girls and women from marginalized communities. The primary objective of this initiative is to train over 600 young girls and women with essential vocational skills that will help foster the seed for being financially self-dependent among these girls and encourage them to establish micro-enterprises, thereby paving the way for sustainable livelihoods. The project will be executed over a span of 12 months in two centers - Tavru district in Haryana and Titron in Saharanpur district of Uttar Pradesh.

The Nari Shakti programme addresses impediments such as low literacy rates and limited income-generation opportunities for women from economically and socially disadvantaged communities. The program will provide training to women above 18 years of age who reside in the targeted geographic areas. The training will be imparted in two batches for the courses, additionally incorporating skill and capacity building on entrepreneurship, health, and nutrition as part of the curriculum.

Door-to-door surveys will be conducted to identify potential candidates, along with ample awareness generation activities to spread the word about the project. Additionally, to improve programme sustainability, one-on-one counseling sessions will be held with the families of shortlisted participants to ensure that they are optimally inferring the objective of the initiative.

The module has been crafted to encompass a comprehensive range of theoretical and practical knowledge, laying particular emphasis on inculcating entrepreneurial training besides facilitating awareness about nutrition, soft skills and life skills. Along with teaching tools and learning materials, regular assessments and practical exposure will be provided to ensure alignment with training outcomes. Subsequently, baseline community mobilization and impact assessments will be conducted to help monitor the group\'s progress and analyze students\' development.

Commenting on the partnership, Puja Trisal, Director, Flipkart Foundation, said, \"Our unwavering commitment to empowering communities through education and skill development is reflected through this partnership with Deepalaya. This initiative is a crucial step towards providing girls and women with marginalized resources meaningful opportunities that enhance their livelihoods. We are thrilled to be a part of this effort and are eager to witness the transformative impact it will have on the beneficiaries and society at large.\"

Dr. George John, Chief Executive, Deepalaya, commented, ?Since 1998, Deepalaya has made a significant impact by establishing 1,616 self-help groups, benefiting 17,892 women and creating over 8,431 micro-enterprises. Our ?Nari Shakti Project? is designed to help women achieve their dreams of self-reliance by providing training and resources to start their own small businesses. By promoting women\'s empowerment, we can create a better and brighter future for everyone. We are thankful to the Flipkart Foundation and Give India for sharing the vision with us.?

The entrepreneurial training provided to the beneficiaries will enable them to identify job opportunities and contribute to their family income, thus creating a ripple effect for future generations. These efforts will further contribute towards elevating the position of women from disadvantaged groups, both socially and economically.

In the past year, Flipkart Foundation has worked with underserved communities across Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Haryana, Karnataka, Telangana, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal to serve, support, and empower unskilled and underprivileged sections of society in various sectors, to ensure maximum reach and sustainable impact.

About the Flipkart Group

The Flipkart Group is one of India?s leading digital commerce entities and includes group companies Flipkart, Myntra, Flipkart Wholesale, Flipkart Health+, and Cleartrip.

Started in 2007, Flipkart has enabled millions of sellers, merchants, and small businesses to participate in India\'s digital commerce revolution. With a registered customer base of more than 450 million, Flipkart\'s marketplace offers over 150 million products across 80+ categories. Today, there are over 11 lakh sellers on the platform, including Shopsy sellers. With a focus on empowering and delighting every Indian by delivering value through technology and innovation, Flipkart has created lakhs of jobs in the ecosystem while empowering generations of entrepreneurs and MSMEs. Flipkart is known for pioneering services such as Cash on Delivery, No Cost EMI, and easy returns, which are customer-centric innovations that have made online shopping more accessible and affordable for millions of Indians.

About Deepalaya

Deepalaya is an ISO 9001:2015 certified non-government organization that believes in enabling self-reliance and is committed to working on issues affecting the urban and rural poor, with a special focus on women and children since 1979. The organisation started with remedial education to girl children from resource scarce set up but over the years, the services and programs grew and Deepalaya ventured into Education, Community Health, Gender Equity, Institutional Care, Vocational Training, Skill Development, Environment and Differently Abled and for more than four decades now has been contributing to the crusade against illiteracy in India.