International Women’s Day 2018
International Women’s Day is being celebrated on March 8 across the world. It is an annual marker that aims to bring attention to women’s accomplishments and obstacles.
“Our dream of New India is an India where women are empowered, strengthened, where they become equal partners in the all-round development of the country.” Prime Minister Narendra Modi said this recently in his Mann Ki Baat. This represents the aspirations of millions of women in India; women who are not being restricted to participation in India’s development trajectory but are also leading it.
Theme: The theme for International Women’s Day 2018 is #PressForProgress. The theme aims to encourage women to raise voice for their rights and promote growing global movement to support gender parity.
How it all began?
- The first Women’s Day was celebrated on February 28, 1909, in New York by the Socialist Party of America. The day was dedicated to the 15,000 women who marched through New York in 1908 as part of the garment strike.
- In 1910, a German activist Clara Zetkin proposed the idea of celebrating Women’s Day in March at the 1910 International Conference of Working Women in Copenhagen.
- On March 19, 1911, Women’s Day was celebrated in Austria, Denmark, Germany, and Switzerland.
- In 1975, the United Nations declared March 8 as the official date to celebrate Women’s Day.
Making women financially independent:
Socio-economic transformation is possible when a woman is financially independent and is empowered to make free choices.
Recent initiatives:
- Since the launch of the Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana (PMMY) in 2015, loans worth Rs 2.1 lakh crore have been sanctioned to women entrepreneurs.
With 76 per cent of the beneficiaries being women, Mudra is an emancipator for women who are breaking shackles, establishing enterprises. - With a focus on the empowerment of women and SC/STs through access to formal capital, the Stand-Up India scheme was launched in April 2016.
It provides loans ranging from Rs 10 lakh to Rs 1 crore.
Of the 38,477 loans extended under the scheme, 81 per cent are to women. - Under Ajeevika, loans are given to self help groups to help them avail of livelihood opportunities. Loans to SHGs of women increased to about Rs 42,500 crore in 2016-17, 37 per cent more than the previous year.
- Without financial inclusion, financial independence is unachievable. Jan Dhan, with more than 16 crore women beneficiaries, has given an unprecedented boost to financial inclusion. Notably, the percentage of zero balance accounts has fallen to 20 per cent of the total accounts opened. This means more women are making use of their accounts.
- Out of 1.04 crore people who benefitted from the Skill India programme within the first year of its launch, 40 per cent were women.
For women who have never received vocational training, Skill India has been an entry point into the job market and prosperity. - To incentivise employment of women in the formal sector, amendments in the Employees Provident Fund and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952 have been proposed in this year’s budget.
Women employees’ contribution has been reduced to 8 per cent for the first three years of employment against the existing rate of 12 per cent or 10 per cent. - “Udyam Shakti” Initiative
- Udyam Sakhi is an inititative to bring aspiring business women and their possible mentors together on one platform so that they could be hand-held through the process of setting up and running an enterprise.
- The portal will be launched by the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Ministry.
- The mentors, who would be extending their services on a voluntary basis, could be social entrepreneurs, senior executives, retired businesswomen, former bank officials or members of non-profit organisations.
Women through above mentioned initiatives are not just becoming financially independent, but also job creators who employ more women in their communities.
Entrepreneurship and financial independence provides multiple windows of opportunity for more women to join the workforce, sometimes without changing their cities or even stepping out of homes
Entrepreneurship and financial independence provides multiple windows of opportunity for more women to join the workforce, sometimes without changing their cities or even stepping out of homes
“When we empower the women in a family, we empower the entire household. When we help with a woman’s education, we ensure that the entire family is educated… When we secure her future, we secure the future of the entire home.”- PM Modi.
Sources: the hindu.
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