On Women’s Entrepreneurship Day, Amazon India announces four new collaborations to Empower Women Entrepreneurs across India
- Amazon India has joined hands with Jharkhand State Livelihood Promotion Society (JSLPS), Uttar Pradesh State Rural Livelihood Mission (UPSRLM), Chhattisgarh State Forest Department (CG Forest) and Assam Rural Infrastructure and Agricultural Services (ARIAS)
- The collaborations are aligned with Amazon’s commitment to digitize 1 crore MSMEs, enable $10 billion in e-commerce exports and create 20 lakh jobs by 2025
- in launched a special WED storefront with a selection of products made available by women-owned businesses. The WED storefront will help customers discover and purchase from close to 98,000 unique products including selections like handicraft, handloom, fashion accessories, grocery and more.
Bangalore, November 19, 2021: On Women’s Entrepreneurship Day, Amazon India announced collaboration with four Government entities including – Uttar Pradesh State Rural Livelihood Mission (UPSRLM), Assam Rural Infrastructure and Agricultural Services (ARIAS), Chhattisgarh State Forest Department (CG Forest) and Jharkhand State Livelihood Promotion Society (JSLPS) as part of its pioneering program- Amazon Saheli, to accelerate the growth of women entrepreneurs across the country. Through this, Amazon and the government bodies will come together to launch assist and empower lakhs of women entrepreneurs associated with them from the four states to register their business online with www.amazon.in and access a wider market base.
Sumit Sahay, Director, Seller Partner Services, Amazon India said, “In line with our commitment to digitize 1 Crore MSMEs by 2025, we are proud to announce that we are collaborating with leading government bodies including UPSRLM in Uttar Pradesh, ARIAS in Assam, CG Forest in Chhattisgarh and JSLPS in Jharkhand to directly impact and empower lakhs of women entrepreneurs across the four states. We want to enable and empower women entrepreneurs who nurture the dream of starting something of their own and help them unleash their true potential by providing a comprehensive suite of marketplace services and continued support. Through these collaborations, we seek to transform the lives of women sellers by helping them kickstart their e-commerce journey.”
On the occasion of Women’s Entrepreneurship Day, Amazon.in launched a special WED storefront with a selection of products made available by women-owned businesses. The WED storefront will help customers discover and purchase from close to 98,000 unique products including selections like handicraft, handloom, fashion accessories, grocery and more. Along with products, the storefront also showcases inspiring stories of self-made women entrepreneurs & their journeys to success. To mark the launch of storefront, Amazon Saheli hosted a panel of key dignitaries from organizations like National Urban Livelihood Mission & Jharkhand State Livelihood Promotion Society where they discussed collaborations & synergies towards empowering women micro & nano-entrepreneurs by providing market access & linkage for locally produced products. Smt. Anupriya Patel, Hon’ble Minister of State for Commerce & Industry, Smt. Manjushree N, Mission Director, National Livelihood Mission, Department of Skill Development Entrepreneurship and Livelihood, Government of Karnataka, Mr. Niraj Kumar, Director- DAY-NULM, Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs, Government of India, and Mr. Bishnu Chandra Parida, COO, Jharkhand State Livelihood Promotion Society, Government of Jharkhand participated in the launch event.
“As Hon’ble Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said, India is transitioning from women’s development to ‘women-led development. It is heartening to see girls and women rise up to positions of leadership and drive change. As it has been said many times before, when you empower a woman you empower a nation. It is with this vision that the Government of India has launched several initiatives to educate women as well as create an enabling eco-system for women’s empowerment. The government launched the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana for financial inclusion of women, Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana for skill development, and the Support to Training and Employment Programme (STEP) to provide training to foster employability for women. It is heartening to see Amazon’s efforts to enable women entrepreneur to embrace digital commerce and support women-led small businesses and women entrepreneurs, in breaking barriers, challenging stereotypes, and improve their positioning in domestic and international markets,” said Smt. Anupriya Patel, Hon’ble Minister of State for Commerce & Industry, Government of India.
In order to promote the growth of women entrepreneurs and women owned businesses in India, Amazon India launched Amazon Saheli in 2017 which is a program to enable women entrepreneurs to become successful sellers on Amazon.in. Today, Amazon Saheli works with over 50 partners such as National Urban Livelihood Mission, Jharkhand State Livelihood Promotion Society (JSLPS), Assam Rural Infrastructure and Agricultural Services (ARIAS), etc. with a reach of over 10,00,000 women entrepreneurs. Currently, the Saheli program includes women entrepreneurs include independent solopreneurs, social entrepreneurs, craftswomen, women-led startups, housewives, etc. and the Amazon Saheli store carries thousands of products across categories such as apparel, home & kitchen, jewellery, groceries etc. The Amazon Saheli program offers extensive training and skill development workshops for its partners to help women entrepreneurs understand the nuances of online selling and develop skills & capabilities necessary to grow their business on Amazon.in. The training workshops consist of sessions on listing of products, imaging & cataloguing, packaging & shipping, inventory & account management and customer servicing. The workshops are free of cost and offer exclusive benefits including assisted onboarding and mentorship programs.
Additional Quotes:
Hon’ble Minister of State, for Parliamentary Affairs, Rural Development and Overall Village Development, Shri Anand Swarup Shukla, Government of Uttar Pradesh said: “When a woman succeeds, the entire family benefits. There is no tool more effective than the empowerment of women in driving development. With the increased use of technology, women entrepreneurs can use e-commerce to broaden their horizons and cater to the needs of customers across the country. We congratulate Amazon for partnership as it will go a long way in supporting the state’s capacity building initiatives for women entrepreneurs, while also helping the standardization of their products. We look forward to supporting women entrepreneurs across the state to realize their economic, social, and financial goals through such partnerships.”
Hon’ble Minister of Industry & Commerce, Transport, Act East Policy Affairs, Skill Development and Welfare of Minorities, Government of Assam, Shri Chandra Mohan Patowary said, “One of the top priorities of the Assam Government is to provide women with the opportunity to become financially secure. We are focused on building sustainable partnerships that positively impact our women entrepreneurs. It is with great pride that we are announcing our partnership with Amazon.in as part of the Amazon Saheli program. This partnership will give them the opportunity to promote and export their products across the country.”
About U.P. State Rural Livelihood Mission
With the objective of promoting and improving the livelihoods of disadvantaged sections of the rural population, Uttar Pradesh State Rural Livelihood Mission (UPSRLM) was registered as an independent society under the aegis of the Department of Rural Development, Government of Uttar Pradesh. Recently the SRLM was named as PRERNA to accord wider publicity to the activities of UPSRLM.
About ARIAS
The Government of Assam created the Assam Rural Infrastructure and Agricultural Services (ARIAS) Society in November 1998, as an autonomous body, headed by the Chief Secretary, Assam, as its President (Project Guidance Council) and the Agriculture Production Commissioner, Assam as the Chairman (Governing Body). The Project Coordination Unit (PCU) is the headquarters of the Society, which is headed by a State Project Director. The key mandate of the Society is to manage, coordinate, implement World Bank aided projects and any other externally funded projects as authorized by the State Government, and to monitor the implementation performance of the line departments of the projects.
About JSLPS
The Rural Development Department of Government of Jharkhand (GoJ) has established a separate and autonomous society named as “Jharkhand State livelihood Promotion society” (JSLPS) which works as a nodal agency for effective implementation of livelihood promotion in the state. JSLPS is also the nodal agency for implementation of National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM) Project in state of Jharkhand. NRLM has the largest poverty reduction program for poor in the world, the National Rural Livelihoods Mission aims at reaching nearly 70 million rural households of India and all the rural poor families and link them to sustainable livelihoods opportunities. It will nurture them till they come out of poverty and enjoy a decent quality of life.
About CG Forest
The Chhattisgarh State Forest Department is engaged in procurement, storage and processing of minor forest produce in a three-tier cooperative structure.
About Amazon.in
The Amazon.in marketplace is operated by Amazon Seller Services Private Ltd, an affiliate of Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN). Amazon.in seeks to build the most customer-centric online destination for customers to find and discover virtually anything they want to buy online by giving them more of what they want – vast selection, low prices, fast and reliable delivery, and a trusted and convenient experience; and provide sellers with a world-class e-commerce marketplace.
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