Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI), the principal financial institution engaged in the promotion, financing and development of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) under its flagship initiative Mission Swavalamban, in partnership with Usha International Limited (UIL) has launched the third phase of setting up of 750 Swavalamban Silai Schools across 20 districts of 10 states with an objective to empower women by making them independent while pursuing entrepreneurship culture and evolve as Homepreneurs. The third phase of the program has been flagged off from Kendrapara district in Odisha.
The 3rd phase of the program was inaugurated by Amar Patnaik, Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha. Sivasubramanian Ramann, Chairman and Managing Director, SIDBI, Sudatta Mandal, Deputy Managing Director, SIDBI, Dinesh Chhabra, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, UIL, Krishna Shriram, Executive Chairman, UIL, Ms. Mary Rupa Tete, Vice President, Usha Social Services of Usha International along with other dignitaries and speakers from Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) partners were present during the virtual launch. Dr Ravindra Kumar Singh, Chief General Manager of SIDBI coordinated the conduct of the event.
Ramann, Chairman and Managing Director, SIDBI said, “SIDBI is glad to announce that through this joint initiative so far 1,700 Swavalamban Silai Schools have been set up in 24 districts across 7 states. Taking the momentum ahead, SIDBI aims towards reaching 15,000 such schools across India. The initiative shall give fillip to the agenda of taking the current 20 percent of enterprises being owned by women to at least 50 percent in the years to come.”
Under this program, training is provided to aspiring women entrepreneurs on various aspects of stitching along with maintenance and repairing of sewing machine by the expert trainers of UIL. The women entrepreneurs successfully completing the training program are provided sewing machine, training kit and a Swavalamban Silai School signage board. This initiative is not only making them independent but to become master trainers and then teach an average of three more women which would create a ripple effect.
Besides life skills, tenets of entrepreneurship and bankability, the third phase shall have thrust on evolving these homepreneurs as virtual cluster where they benefit from aggregation and digital platforms.
Krishna Shriram, Executive Chairman, UIL said, “We constantly strive to innovate and add values to the lives of Silai School women. With this endeavour, we have launched Usha Silai, a mobile app which is available in 12 regional languages and has content on various aspects of sewing. We will also be creating the next rung of leadership by developing cluster level leaders from among the existing Silai School women who will become the nodal points for facilitation and coordination for village level information and opportunities."
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