Small water enterprises (SWEs) can play an important role in fostering women entrepreneurship and ensuring their economic participation in the nation’s development. Discuss (200 Words)
Refer - Financial Express
Enrich the answer from other sources, if the question demands.
IAS Parliament 5 years
KEY POINTS
· SWEs can provide opportunities to women to turn from water bearers to water managers, improving availability and accessibility of safe drinking water, earning livelihood, and improving their quality of life.
· Engaging women in the management of SWEs can help achieve the twin objectives of women’s empowerment
1. Provision of safe drinking water to the communities,
2. Contributing to UN Sustainable Development Goals 6 (Clean Water), 5 (Gender Equality) and 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth).
· Promoting the concept of SWEs, the Safe Water Network India (SWNI) took up the initiative to empower grass-roots women—self-help groups or slum-level federation by empowering them with skills, deploying technology, and reducing their work hours to mainstream them into an economic activity, thus changing their historical role from water carriers to safe water managers.
· Their journey was not easy given societal barriers, gendered roles and responsibilities, access to finance, besides lack of skill-sets.
· To achieve this goal, a series of training programmes were developed and workshops conducted in local languages where women entrepreneurs were trained to understand the conceptual and operational aspects of treatment facilities.
· The iJal station managers were also trained to engage with customers and educate their community members about the benefits of consuming safe drinking water.
· Additionally, women working at these water stations not only earn a livelihood, but also make a positive and long-lasting impact within their communities and contribute to the national economy.
· Investment in SWEs provide an opportunity to women, particularly in rural areas, to improve the health of communities and earn livelihoods.
· More initiatives need to be taken to create gender parity in the economy. It’s the collective responsibility of the government and society to realise the goal of a more inclusive, sustainable and prosperous future.
