Programme helps women hone entrepreneurship skills

A series of women’s entrepreneurship development programmes (WEDP) launched by a Jaipur-based research institution has helped a number of women in Rajasthan overcome barriers to business creation and self-employment during the COVID-19 pandemic. The guidance has enabled them to take up start-up projects with profitable outcomes.

Most of the WEDPs were designed in a manner to train potential women entrepreneurs and were run in a hybrid mode to provide blended learning opportunities. Women were exposed to business theories and practices in several sectors, touching upon aspects such as developing business models, financial and operational planning, market research and funding sources.

The Centre for Innovation, Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE) at Indian Institute of Health Management Research (IIHMR) here has conducted the programmes. CIIE chairperson Sheenu Jain said here on Thursday that several nascent start-ups in the State had commenced the work on a small scale and the women running them had honed up their entrepreneurial skills.

Medical professional Madhu Raturi, 67, who attended a WEDP, has started a home healthcare model, Sevaartha, along with her son for providing nursing care to patients needing home service. The venture has benefited those isolated at home in the pandemic. Dr. Raturi’s institution is currently developing it as a model that could provide employment to educated girls from rural areas.

Neha Khandelwal, who makes handcrafted paper products, has given a formal shape to her start-up with the title ‘Innovative Papers’ while looking for new opportunities in social media marketing. She said learning from the programme had helped her get more traction for her business.

Reenu Purohit, who has launched an online application, ‘To Help’, for personalised consultation to women about pelvic health, said it would serve the purpose of utilising assistive equipment and deal with the issues of puberty, anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorder among women.

“As a feminine phenomenon, the WEDPs have given wings to women’s ideas and speeded up their start-up journey. The potential entrepreneurs have received an impetus to curate the models which will fill the gaps existing in various sectors during the pandemic,” Dr. Jain said.