The COVID-19 pandemic has been hard on the country’s economy. The most affected because of this are the women, who often have to sacrifice their needs to care for the bread winners and children. In order to empower the women and help them gain financial independence, the all-women ‘Nirbhaya Squad’ of Jaipur police has expressed willingness to join a consortium of organisations to impart skills training to women at the grassroots.
The idea is to link the corporate social responsibility (CSR) funding by the private companies for education with the promotion of entrepreneurship among women. The focus of the initiative will be on developing entrepreneurial skills among young women in the rural areas to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 pandemic.
The Nirbhaya Squad
The bike-borne Nirbhaya Squad was formed in 2019 with women constables trained in martial arts, who are deployed at schools, colleges, malls and bus stops to extend protection to women. The Squad took out flag marches during the pandemic and distributed sanitary pads free of cost in the containment zones in Jaipur.
Need of the hour – To Impart Digital Skills
The Nirbhaya Squad’s nodal officer Sunita Meena has said that the CSR funding for education could be utilised for developing skills among young women in the villages and small towns to create livelihood opportunities for them. “Digital skills training is the need of the hour for women, who should be encouraged to take up productive work and join the community efforts in the fields of healthcare, sanitation and hygiene,” Ms. Meena said. “The CSR educational programmes should enable the women entrepreneurs to find new avenues through networking and diversification of work,” she added.
The initiative was announced at a virtual even where Ms. Meena joined many other experts to recommend adopting new strategies to integrate skills and values with the career decision making process for women. Udaipur-based Narayan Seva Sansthan’s president Prashant Agarwal said the CSR education sector could increase the availability of trained professionals through innovative programmes.
Goutam Sadhu, professor at School of Development Studies, Indian Institute of Health Management Research University, said the corporates had geared up to meet the requirements of the CSR regime introduced in the Companies Act, 2013.
