As part of its commitment to strengthen community-led rural development, Nestlé India in collaboration with Drishtee Foundation launched Project Swabhimaan to enable and empower rural women to earn livelihood for themselves. Rural women entrepreneurs will make Nestlé’s products accessible to rural communities. In the first phase, the initiative will focus on training and mentoring women across 100 villages in Uttar Pradesh and subsequently expand to other villages across India with the aim of upskilling women entrepreneurs.
Commenting on the launch, Mr. Suresh Narayanan, Chairman and Managing Director, Nestlé India, said, “Women empowerment is an integral part of Nestlé India, with a growing percentage of women employees in our workforce. Additionally, we have always been committed to supporting entrepreneurship among women through various initiatives such as the Village Women Dairy Development programme and by training women street food vendors through Project Serve Safe Food. Project Swabhimaan will provide much needed opportunities for rural women by mentoring and training them as they take on the role of entrepreneurs. The initiative will also be a platform to communicate and make deeper connections with our rural consumers.’’
Nitin Gachhayat, Co-Founder, Drishtee Foundation said, ‘’At Drishtee Foundation, we are committed towards livelihood generation for women. We have worked in large number of villages, training nearly 70,000 beneficiaries in livelihood skills. Through the partnership with Nestlé India, we hope to strengthen our commitment to improving rural livelihoods by aiding and supporting entrepreneurship among women.’’
As part of this project, rural women entrepreneurs will be identified from each panchayat (hub villages) and will undergo training in product-knowledge, marketing, sales, local distribution, merchandising and communications. The women entrepreneurs through the digital medium will connect with the local distributor for the supply of ordered products.
For more information:
Ambereen Ali Shah, [email protected], +91 9717022731
Shashank Kumar Nair, [email protected], + 91 9818077775