UNDP launches the ‘Sahi Disha’ campaign to celebrate women’s livelihoods and entrepreneurship in rural India
The ‘Sahi Disha’ campaign highlights issues and hurdles that impact the opportunities for women in rural India to access jobs and livelihoods and establish enterprises that can help them become more self-reliant.
18 March 2021, New Delhi, India: While India is working to ‘build back better’ as it recovers from the deep socio-economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, gender gaps and disparities have emerged as key challenges.
It is estimated that since the beginning of the pandemic last year, four out of every ten women who were working before the lockdown lost their jobs. According to a report released by Oxfam India this year, women who were employed before the lockdown are 23.5 per cent less likely to be re-employed compared to men in the current phase of the pandemic.
The Disha initiative – a five-year collaboration between UNDP and the IKEA Foundation – enabled one million women through skilling and counselling services to access job and livelihood opportunities across five states – Delhi NCR, Haryana, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Telangana. The initiative also provided psycho-social support to mentor and empower women in starting their own enterprises and in challenging gender stereotypes at home and in the community.
Disha was an initiative that led the way to several insights and learnings from rural areas of India, that often do not get the attention and focus they deserve. UNDP has recently launched the #SahiDisha campaign to share these learnings, stories and insights from the initiative’s work with these one million women across India.
This month-long campaign led by UNDP India highlights issues and hurdles that are often faced by rural women in exploring and accessing jobs and livelihoods or in initiating micro-enterprises that can help them become more self-reliant.
“COVID-19 has had a devastating impact on many of the women entrepreneurs that we work with who already come from economically disadvantaged communities. It is now even more important to expand opportunities for local jobs and livelihood for rural women so that they and their families can recover from the impacts of this crisis. No one partner can do this alone. This effort requires collaboration across government, private sector, community groups, development agencies and the media. The #SahiDisha campaign is a call for action to prioritize and invest in women’s livelihoods to support recovery,” shares Ms. Nadia Rasheed, Deputy Resident Representative, UNDP India.
The month-long campaign that began in March has been widely promoted on UNDP India social media channels and will continue till the end of this month, as an ode to this special month when we celebrate the strength and resilience of every woman, everywhere.
