Dec 20, 2022 . Read 5 min
Sakhi: Empowering women for Greater Good
Team Vedanta
Since early days, the well-being of society has been driven by the practice of giving back. Today, Vedanta has attained the status of a global organisation, but its core values continue to be guided by the same principle: serving as the custodian of the wealth it creates and channelling it back into society for the greater good. With the vision and abiding commitment to nation building and upliftment of the poor and marginalised, it relentlessly works with stakeholders in areas of healthcare, education, and skill development with a strong focus on national and local crises when they occur.
As a socially responsible corporate, Hindustan Zinc, a Vedanta group company, has been constantly working towards enhancing the lives of people around its business locations. A key focus of such endeavours, thus, are rural women. When you empower women, you empower not only a family or village, but the entire nation and the Sakhi community is an example of the same.
Sakhi is one of the most unique and largest women empowerment programmes in the country with the objective to bring socio-economic empowerment amongst rural & tribal women by mobilising them into self-help groups (SHGs), develop a platform that provides vocational training and aid them in building their capacities around leadership, skill development, savings and entrepreneurship. So far, Sakhi has been positively transforming the lives of 27,568 women through 2,118 SHGs covering 209 villages.
Another notable facet of the programme is the Sakhi Utpadan Samiti which empowers rural women via the provision of reliable sources of income. More than 250 women are part of this programme through 11 micro businesses. Additionally, the federation has collectively helped disburse loans of ₹57.86 crore to its members, thus not only empowering women but also aiding the advancement of agriculture, livestock, and micro-enterprises as well as assisting with members' household and social needs.
Sakhi has fostered 1,157 small and nano enterprises as well as 7 collective enterprises where these women are part of the production, processing, and marketing departments with the help of its business partner, Manjari Foundation. The programme provides production interventions such as for spices, pulses and pickles, textiles units and also promotes enterprises to help generate livelihood opportunities for the women enrolled in the programme.
Sakhi has been implemented across five districts in Rajasthan, namely, Ajmer, Bhilwara, Chittorgarh, Rajsamand, and Udaipur along with the Uddham Singh Nagar district in Uttarakhand.
The distinctive Sakhi Women Empowerment programme led Vedanta Hindustan Zinc to be honoured with the 'Leaders for Social Change' award by the Social Story Foundation. Sakhi continues to serve as a beacon of hope for thousands of 'Sakhis' in rural India, by not only transforming their lives but the communities around them, truly 'transforming for good'.
