The Modi government is emphasizing on women-led development and the government is constantly making efforts for this. A positive initiative has also been started by the United Nations in the direction of the Government of India's efforts to empower women and increase their participation in the workforce. The United Nations (UN) and the European Union (EU) will together make the women of India economically empowered and capable.

On Friday, UN Women and the EU jointly launched the Women Empower India program, which aims to economically empower women in India. The aim is to increase women's participation in the workforce and connect them with employment so that women become capable and then empower India. The EU has provided a fund of 2.78 million US dollars to UN Women for this program.

Participation of women in the workforce is very low

Although the participation of women in the workforce has increased in India, their participation is still much less than that of men. If we look at the statistics, the participation of women in the workforce is only 41.7 percent while that of men is 78 percent. When the participation of women in the workforce increases, along with women becoming competent and empowered, the country will also become economically empowered and capable.

The Women Empower India program aims to create an environment for women and girls to become socially and economically empowered. The program was launched at a ceremony in Delhi on Friday. Along with the launch of the program, UN Women and EU also awarded corporate leaders working for Women Empowerment Principles i.e. gender-based equality.

UN Women's Country Program Manager Women Economic Empowerment Suhaila Khan says that in this program UN Women will provide employment training to women in collaboration with private sector and government training centers like ITI etc. and then help them in getting employment or becoming entrepreneurs and starting their own business. This program will start in Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra from January where women will be linked to employment by providing skill development training. In Tamil Nadu, work is already being done in the textile sector in collaboration with the state government. The entire program is of 40 months.

Teleperformance CEO Anish Mukkar receives award

On Friday, UN Women and EU awarded corporate sector leaders for their efforts towards gender equality and making workplaces more accessible for women and gender sensitivity. Teleperformance CEO Anish Mukkar received the award for Leadership Commitment. While Infosys Limited won the award for Gender Inclusive Workplace, Wipro Limited won the award for Gender Responsive Marketplace and Zomato won the award for Community Engagement and Partnership.

Datamatics Global Services Limited won the Transparency and Reporting award and Kinara Capital won the Innovative Financing for Gender Equality award. Apart from this, Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) were also honored in which iVillage A Family, Aspire and Ambier Environmental Engineering Solutions were awarded.

Women will get opportunities through Women Empower India program

On this occasion, Confederation of Indian Industry (CIA) Director General Chandrajit Banerjee, European Union Ambassador HE Harvey Dolphin, UN Women's Country Representative Susan Ferguson were present. Harvey Dolphin said that women empowerment is important. If a woman is empowered, she uplifts the whole family and when a woman uplifts the family, it brings about change in the society. He said that the Women Empower India program will increase economic opportunities for women and girls.