Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmBH in partnership with Dhriiti-The Courage Within has announced ‘Seeding Grampreneurs’ initiative to promote Village and Township Enterprises (VTEs) across rural India.
The Seeding Grampreneurs initiative is a conversation, a call-to-action, and a movement that was triggered by the recent mass migration due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the alarming rise of unemployment amongst the migrants from rural India.
The initiative seeks to address the glaring realities: “What opportunity do the migrants now have to sustain themselves in their home base?”
Seeding Gramprenuers will work as an overarching theme for many projects that promotes enterprises that are rural-focussed and rural-based, in the near future.
Starting with Seeding Grampreneurs Seeders Fellowship 2020’ that was recently announced, the fellowship calls for rural professionals from the state of Assam,
“Jharkhand, Manipur, Nagaland, and Odisha to provide business support to Self Help Groups (SHGs) that are managed and run by women entrepreneurs,” said a press release.
In the initial phase, the fellowship will train 50 individuals from the 5 states.
Out of the trained individuals, 10 will be selected as fellows who will identify, train, and provide business support to 300 rural women entrepreneurs of different Self Help Groups (SHGs).
The overall objective is to create Village and Township Enterprises which will act as an impetus for inclusive growth to address migration and unemployment issues.
The fellowship will run for three months.
“Seeding Grampreneurs is a much-needed initiative to boost rural livelihoods and in turn, the local economies. The Seeders Fellowship is an innovative step in this direction and will help catalyse women entrepreneurship,” said Julia Karst, head of project, Her & Now, GIZ India.
“Project Her & Now is committed to supporting women entrepreneurship at the village and town level to play a crucial role in driving these local economies,” Karst added.
“The Seeders Fellowship in a unique initiative to train rural professionals to become promoters of Village and Township Enterprises in the district and block economies,” said Anirban Gupta, co-founder, Dhriiti.
“This initiative will eventually spread its support to 300 Women Entrepreneurs from the 5 states of Assam, Jharkhand, Manipur, Nagaland, and Odisha,” said Gupta.
“We at Dhriiti look forward to Seeding Grampreneurs across the country and this is just the start,” Gupta added.