According to research done by India’s planning commission , 80% of rural Indian women are engaged in agriculture either directly as self-employed farmers or indirectly as agricultural farm laborers. They are engaged at all levels of agricultural value chain – from production, harvest, post-harvest processing to packaging and marketing. Yet, women face inequalities and are systemically denied the same work rights as men.
It is projected that women oriented reforms, ensuring equal access to resources, investing in their skill development would on one hand increase agricultural output and on the other uplift their economic and social status. It’s a win-win strategy for achieving United Nations sustainable development goal 5 (SDG 5) related to empowering all women.
In line with SDG 5, PRERNA uses a two pronged approach to women’s empowerment: first, by mainstreaming women in Agriculture through skill, capacity and entrepreneurship development trainings so they can leverage with the market and second, by organizing poor women into Self-Help Groups (SHGs), developing locally relevant economic activities to increase productivity and incomes of SHG members.
In collaboration with UNDP, PRERANA organized structured capacity building programs for 7,500 women producers on incense stick production, enterprise promotion and financial literacy across 150 villages of Jaunpur, Mirzapur and Sant Ravidas Nagar districts in Uttar Pradesh state. PRERANA has strengthened the livelihoods of these 7,500 members through the implementation of a well-designed value chain development strategy and mitigated their livelihood risks.
With the support from District Urban Development Agency, PRERANA led the capacity building programs for over 300 women in slum areas of Jabalpur city and implemented various interventions to support their livelihoods.
In partnership with Jabalpur Municipal Corporation, PRERANA organized over 2,000 women from the marginalized communities under SHGs as part of National Urban Livelihood Mission and implemented various interventions to support their livelihoods.
