Empowering Women through Skill India and Other Initiatives

By Poorvi Gupta

At the centre of the country's massive Skill India campaign lies a big opportunity. If India's PM urges to involve more and more women into this Skill India plan, he may multiply the efforts and initiatives of this nationwide effort. It's time to empower women and upgrade their  skills which will help the economy grow by leaps and bounds. India is touted to be the world’s most populated country which  comprises half a billion women. And what more, 50% of these women are below the age of 25 and more than 65% below 35 years of age. A report by the UN  says, “When more women work, economies grow. An increase in female labour force participation—or a reduction in the gap between women’s and men’s labour force participation—results in faster economic growth.”

Not only this, the women of the country can also benefit by the other programs that the Modi government has come up with, for instance, the Digital India program if used in sync with Skill India. For example, Digital India, which will drive efforts to promote better internet access, e-services within the government, wider reach via technology and other efforts. The government expects this to boost the number of women applying for civil services and eventually getting placed in the government jobs. Another key feature of this initiative is to connect the rural areas with high-speed internet networks which will add to the digital literacy of women radically. Any potential connect between the two drives in engaging young women will boost the development of the country in ways unimaginable.

The time has come to minimise the gender gap between male and female workers in the country. It would be a great idea to launch sub-campaigns at micro level in the rural areas and the unorganised sectors to create awareness and attract more women to come out of their houses and work for their livelihood. Though the change is beginning to show in the urban sector but it is slow. We, as a country, need to break the prejudice and show our worth by putting an effort to improve our skills and bring about a change that will help raise the self-esteem of women individually and benefit the country at large.