During the Social Impact Summit that was organized on November 8, 2022, on the occasion of its 15th anniversary, Women on Wings announced its latest milestone. As per September 30, 2022, 285,000 jobs are co-created for women in rural India. The growth in the number of jobs is the result of successful partnerships with 48 business partners in India. With this newest result, Women on Wings can report a further growth in jobs compared to March 2022 numbers and vis a vis the pre COVID-19 pandemic number of jobs. This means that all jobs lost during the COVID-19 pandemic are recovered.
Conscious consumption
In the first half of this financial year, Women on Wings has seen a remarkable resilience and recovery of its business partners. The current growth is still not in line with pre COVID-19 years, but consumers are now more aware of locally made products which social enterprises can benefit from. Shilpa Mittal Singh, joint managing director at Women on Wings: “This was also shared by Accenture India during our Social Impact Summit. Its research showed that consumer behavior dramatically reshaped post pandemic into an increasing focus on health, a rise in conscious consumption and growing desire to shop locally. Our business partners can adapt to these changes by taking action to respond, reset and renew to be positioned even stronger for the future. Changing consumer patterns do not immediately and automatically lead to opportunities for our partners, there will certainly be challenges. We are more than happy to work with our business partners on these new challenges as it is our constant endeavor to take families in rural India out of the cycle of poverty through economic development of women.”
Partnership with Jharkhand State Livelihood Promotion Society
In March 2022, Women on Wings and the Jharkhand State Livelihood Promotion Society (JSLPS) started to collaborate on co-creating and growing the brand Palash, an umbrella brand of various products which are handmade or processed by rural women. By strengthening the brand, Women on Wings and JSLPS aim to create additional jobs and regular income for women in rural Jharkhand. Much has been done in the first half year of the partnership and additional on-site workshops and online follow-up sessions are being planned on specific topics for the next half year. The impact in number of jobs co-created will be measured once a year at the end of the financial year, which implies that the impact of this partnership is not yet reflected in the above-mentioned result of jobs.
Image | Rangsutra Crafts’ artisans in Bikaner
