At Panipat's Swabhiman kendra, a series of workshops on financial literacy and entrepreneurship were held. The workshop's major goal was to promote financial literacy among women domestic workers, to educate them about their rights and options so that they can be informed and self-sufficient, and to provide them with information regarding entrepreneurship.
Mrs. Anita Kapoor (Secretary of Sehri Mahila Gharelu Kamgaar Union) conducted the workshop, and she has expertise instructing women on many elements of financial literacy and encouraging them to form self-help groups. In the month of December, 42 women domestic workers, 5 young self-employed women, and 9 adolescent girls attended a four-day training workshop.
The workshop focused on the following aspects of financial literacy and well-being which has reinforced women domestic workers for social and economic empowerment by supporting them as they learn, care, and lead each other through the challenges that were imposed on their lives due to the second wave of the pandemic.
Women domestic workers were trained the importance of saving in their daily lives, as well as how savings can be used in an emergency, to establish a business, and to enhance their negotiating power and make them self-reliant. They were also informed about the need of budgeting in order to save money. Role play, an art-based participatory methodology, was used to create a shared knowledge of credit and loans from moneylenders, and how it makes moneylenders financially stronger while trapping women (loan seekers) in a vicious cycle of poverty and debt.
Domestic workers also learned about the significance of entrepreneurship, whether as an individual or as a group, and how it pertains to empowerment.
They discussed a variety of entrepreneurial possibilities as a group, and by the end of the workshop, they were able to envision and plan a business plan as individuals and as a group.
The workshop also emphasized the significance of collective as a "self-help group" that enables women to be one other's supporters and companions, as well as provide emotional and financial support.