Latest result Women on Wings: 333,400 jobs co-created for women in rural India

Women on Wings is happy to announce its latest achievement in co-creating impact for women in rural India. In FY 2022-2023, an additional 52,400 jobs were co-created in collaboration with business partners and the Jharkhand State Livelihood Promotion Society (JSLPS) in India. This increase has resulted in the co-creation of 333,400 jobs for women in rural India in a span of 15 years.

Impact through women entrepreneurship programs
The increase in impact in FY 2022-2023 is largely thanks to the women entrepreneurship program which is executed in partnership with JSLPS. Since March 2022, Women on Wings and JSLPS have been collaborating on building a sustainable brand for Palash. JSLPS introduced Palash in 2020 with the aim to provide access to market to the women they have mobilized and trained in production and processing of largely Food & Agri related products.

What a difference an income makes
Women on Wings and JSLPS are collaborating on developing a complete business strategy for Palash with an objective of creating a sustainable brand that will create regular income and more jobs for women in Jharkhand.
This partnership supports women like Reena Devi (picture center), a flour mill operator, from the village of Nagri, in the district of Ranchi, Jharkhand state. A Women on Wings team member interviewed Reena while on a field visit for JSLPS’s women entrepreneurship program. Reena shared that thanks to this program, she was able to get a loan to purchase an electric flour mill which resulted in a sustainable income for herself and her family.

Since earning a better income, Reena has been able to enroll her children in private schools where they have better education and exposure. If the kids lag in subjects and require more tutoring, she can send them for extra classes. Reena aims to expand her flour mill unit this year and involve more female suppliers of raw materials. Read more about Reena’s journey.

State governments believe in Women on Wings’ approach
Says Shilpa Mittal Singh, joint Managing Director at Women on Wings: “Reena’s story is a great example of the many women we have met while on field visits. Building women entrepreneurship programs will contribute to scaling our impact and engage more women like her. Last January we also signed a partnership with Mahila Arthik Vikas Mahamandal (MAVIM), a groundbreaking initiative undertaken by the Government of Maharashtra, for a period of three years to establish a revenue vertical within MAVIM in order to scale up their brand Tejaswini and co-create sustainable livelihood for rural women in Maharashtra. We are very proud that already two state government institutions see the added value of Women on Wings and choose us for building their women entrepreneurship programs.”

Impact through collaboration
In 2022, Women on Wings celebrated its 15th anniversary in both the Netherlands and India and brought together a wide variety of people from its ecosystem. The inspiring speakers at the events shared what the impact is of Women on Wings’ work on rural women, social businesses and network partners, and the volunteer experts. Says Ronald van het Hof, joint Managing Director at Women on Wings: “Without all these committed people we would not be able to realize our goal of co-creating 1 million jobs for women in rural India. It was truly inspiring to celebrate, connect and look ahead together. We see that the ecosystem in which we operate, is more and more open for partnerships, which will really add to creating more impact. For this current financial year, we expect a further acceleration in our impact, which is largely attributable to the women entrepreneurship programs. We target to co-create 120,000 extra jobs for women in rural India by the end of FY 2023-2024.”