By Aarushi Gupta | Development & Grants Manager
The positive role of women in the workforce to diversify and strengthen local, national, and global economies is well recognized. Recently, there has been positive growth in the female labor force participation rate in India, signifying meaningful inclusion of more and more women in the workforce.
However, a lot of work remains to be done. Not only is the rate of female labor force participation in India well behind the global average, rural women are almost solely employed in the informal sector in jobs such as daily wage laborers, farming, or unpaid care for elderly family members and children at home.
The Desai Foundation is striving to help women to learn diverse skills so as to build confidence, foster dignity, and open a host of meaningful and fulfilling livelihood opportunities for them. Through skills training in sewing, beauty parlor skills, entrepreneurship development, computer literacy, and more, our programs are enhancing the capacity and employability of women and girls in rural India.
The Desai Foundation’s approach is holistic and locally-led, as we empower community facilitators, who are also members of the community, to lead livelihood programs that equip women with the resources needed to meaningfully participate in the workforce.
Program Impact
As we have recently hit the milestone of directly impacting 12 Million lives in rural India, our livelihood programs play a key role in empowering women and girls to develop diverse skill sets, gain financial independence, and learn how to navigate financial services and government benefits.
Beyond economic empowerment, the Desai Foundation's project encompasses broader social and physical well-being for both participants and their communities. Through our Heroes For Humanity (HFH) program, we train local community facilitators to lead our programs in health, livelihood, menstrual equity, and climate resilience. This ensures that our programs are locally-led, self-sustaining and scalable in impact.
Participation Numbers from this Quarter
For this quarter, the Desai Foundation conducted various livelihood trainings that directly impacted several rural communities:
At the Desai Foundation, we consider empowerment to be something that goes beyond quantified figures. When assessing our programs, we not only look at the quantitative numbers i.e. how many women and girls are participating, we also look at certain intangible indicators such as change in one’s attitude/mindset, signs of improved mental health/empowered mindset etc. An example can be a participant sharing with us that she was able to “make a friend” by attending our programs, or learning a little more about existing government programs and services that she and her family could benefit from.
Our impact numbers for this quarter serve as a testament to the enduring importance of our livelihood programming in continuing to tap the limitless potential of women and girls in rural India to become true trailblazers in their communities.
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By Aarushi Gupta | Development & Grants Manager
By Aarushi Gupta | Development & Grants Manager
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