Women on Wings is happy to announce its latest achievement in co-creating impact for women living in rural India. In FY 2022-2023, an additional 52,400 jobs were co-created in collaboration with business partners and the Jharkhand State Livelihood Promotion Society (JSLPS) in India. This increase has resulted in the co-creation of 333,400 jobs for women in rural India in a span of 15 years.
Impact through women entrepreneurship programs
The increase in impact in FY 2022-2023 is largely thanks to the women entrepreneurship program which is executed in partnership with JSLPS. Since March 2022, Women on Wings and JSLPS have been collaborating on building a sustainable brand for Palash. JSLPS has introduced Palash in 2020, because it wanted to provide access to market to rural women. Women that they have mobilized and trained in production and processing of largely Food & Agri related products.
What a difference an income makes
Women on Wings and JSLPS are collaborating on developing a complete business strategy for Palash. Because creating a sustainable brand will ultimately create regular income and more jobs for women in Jharkhand. Women like Reena Devi (picture center), a flour mill operator, from the village of Nagri, in the district of Ranchi, Jharkhand state.
A Women on Wings team member interviewed Reena while on a field visit for JSLPS’s women entrepreneurship program. Reena shared that thanks to this program, she was able to get a loan to purchase an electric flour mill. This new mill resulted in a sustainable income for herself and her family.
Since earning a better income, Reena has been able to enroll her children in private schools, so they have better education and exposure. If the kids lag in subjects and require more tutoring, she can send them for extra classes. Reena aims to expand her flour mill unit this year and involve more female suppliers of raw materials. Read more about Reena’s journey.
State governments believe in Women on Wings’ approach
Says Shilpa Mittal Singh, joint Managing Director at Women on Wings: “Reena’s story is a great example of the many women we have met while on field visits. Building women entrepreneurship programs will contribute to scaling our impact and engage more women like her. Last January we also signed a partnership with Mahila Arthik Vikas Mahamandal (MAVIM), a groundbreaking initiative undertaken by the Government of Maharashtra. For a period of three years we will work on establishing a revenue vertical within MAVIM to scale up their brand Tejaswini. This will result in the co-creation of sustainable livelihood for rural women in Maharashtra. We are very proud that already two state government institutions see the added value of Women on Wings, and choose us for building their women entrepreneurship programs.”
Impact through collaboration
In 2022, Women on Wings celebrated its 15th anniversary. In both the Netherlands and India it brought together a wide variety of people from its ecosystem. Inspiring speakers shared what the impact is of Women on Wings’ work on rural women, social businesses, and the volunteer experts. Says Ronald van het Hof, joint Managing Director at Women on Wings: “Without all these committed people we would not be able to realize our goal of co-creating 1 million jobs for women in rural India. It was truly inspiring to celebrate, connect and look ahead together. We see that the ecosystem in which we operate, is more and more open for partnerships. This will really add to creating more impact. For this current financial year, we expect a further acceleration in our impact. This is largely attributable to the women entrepreneurship programs. We target to co-create 120,000 extra jobs for women in rural India by the end of FY 2023-2024.”</em
