New Delhi : In its efforts to empower women, Amway India, one of the country’s leading FMCG Direct Selling companies, has been focused on fostering the spirit of entrepreneurship through its livelihood skills development program. Amway is now offering avenues to less privileged women to own and operate their business through skill development and entrepreneurship training. In line with this, Amway recently concluded the first phase of its skill development program in Delhi in collaboration with our NGO partner Deepalaya. The company hosted a webinar along with their NGO partner recognising over 100 women who have completed the one-year programme.

Commenting on the program, Anshu Budhraja, CEO, Amway India, said, “At Amway, empowering women is at the core of all our initiatives and business. As per recent reports, India’s GDP growth rate would climb above 9%[i] if women had an equitable share of jobs. This is in line with our belief that women play a critical role in strengthening the current socio-economic landscape of the country. Hence, we have been working towards supporting them by providing skill development and entrepreneurial opportunities through our livelihood skill development program. Our skill training program for less privileged women is aimed at building competencies in women and helping them become financially independent. Building on the success of our pilot projects, we are expanding the program in Delhi and Haryana. Under this phase, we intend to train over 400 women through tailored programs, imparting skills required to run/sustain a business while also providing a community of mentors to support and guide at every step.”

Talking about the program, Dr. George John, CEO, Deepalaya said, “Despite significant economic growth, the number of women in the workforce in India is much less compared to other similar economies across the world. We plan to channel our efforts in helping as many women as possible to become part of the workforce – either through employment or as entrepreneurs. With this partnership with Amway India, we have initiated the process at the grassroots level and are thankful to the team for their unwavering support.”

Applauding the efforts of students and deliberating on women entrepreneurship in India, present at the conference were Chief guest Shri K. Rajeswara Rao, Senior Adviser, Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM) along with Ms. Simrat Bishnoi, Vice President, Corporate & Marketing Communications, CSR; Dr. George John, CEO, Deepalaya; and Mr. Uday Shankar, Chief Controller, Vishwa Yuvak Kendra (the certifying partner) among others.  In the virtual ceremony, Amway presented comprehensive start-up kits to the top 10 most promising students who have done exceptionally well during their training period. The kits comprise necessary equipment such as sewing machines, make-up products and tools etc., which will be helpful for these students to start their business.

The initiative aims to provide sustainable livelihood options with specialized courses for women providing equal job opportunities to them aligned with the Government’s ‘Skill India’ initiative. Within the program, Deepalaya has been training women in the age group of 18-35 years from less privileged communities. The training sessions comprise dedicated 1200 hours of training in skills such as beauty and wellness, fashion designing, entrepreneurship and other soft skills required to unleash their entrepreneurial potential. It has started a similar program in Hamirpur, Himachal Pradesh.

Amway India earlier had extended support in the areas of Entrepreneurship and Livelihood training project in 2018 in Muzaffarpur and Chapra in Bihar and Ambedkarnagar and Mirzapur in Uttar Pradesh for the upliftment of less-privileged women. The program benefitted 400 direct and 20,000 indirect beneficiaries. The company aims to scale up the project across newer geographies with the target of helping more than 3,000 women to become entrepreneurs / get employment by 2022.