New Delhi : A social enterprise, Women on Wings targets to create one million jobs for women in rural India by 2018, an official said Wednesday.
Founder Ellen Tacoma told a roundtable meeting here: “Being economically independent is so important for women. We target to create one million jobs for women in rural India by working with Indian organisations. We have a target to touch 170,000 jobs by the end of 2014.”
Women on Wings that provides business consultancy to social entrepreneurs was founded in September 2007 in the Netherlands and has a presence in India since 2010.
Tacoma said the number of jobs created for rural women in India has so far touched 125,200.
It also signed a Memorandum of Cooperation with the National Skill Development Council Wednesday.
It provides consultancy to organisations having a minimum of 250-300 women on the rolls. There are 60 Dutch experts who provide consultancy through Women on Wings.
The aim of the mission is to make the businesses profitable without any subsidies and grants.
“Of late, Tata Group associated with us. We will look forward to many more Indian companies to join us in the future,” Tacoma said.
Women on Wings works with experts having at least 15 years of experience in the corporate sector.
Talking about the importance of women participation in the overall economy, Ambassador of Netherlands Alphonsus Stoelinga said: “In India, women’s contribution to GDP (Gross Domestic Product) is very low. This has to go up for the overall social and economic development.”
Tacoma said: “By enabling women to have an income, we help them to create a better future for their family and children.”
She said they chose to work in rural India as the population — 1.2 billion — is very high, and because of the all-round poverty.