199

   



harnessed by SHGs, federations

and co-operatives in rural India is a force to

be reckoned with for positive, last impact.

One of the pioneers of this movement in

India is the indomitable Gandhian Elaben

Bhatt, the founder of the iconic Self-

Employed Women’s Association of India

SEWA. Elaben also founded riends of

Women’s World Banking (WWB) to help

women entrepreneurs from low-income

households access financial services,

build capacities and use the collective as

a springboard to emerge out of poverty.

It endeavours to empower them at an

individual as well as group level.

Many women who run microenterprises

cannot scale up their businesses due to a

variety of reasons, including socio-cultural

and religious norms, and movement

restrictions for women. is limits their

access to financial management skills,

adequate infrastructure and market

linkage for their product that could help

them grow. ‘WWB initiated a women

entrepreneurship support programme eight

Friends of

Women’s World

Banking, India

•

•

•• •

Bhavna Parmar, an electrician, fixing a series light

for one of her customers, and transforming gender and

livelihood perceptions

Founded by Elaben Bhatt in 1981

Friends of Women’s World Banking,

or FWWB, was founded with the

objective of providing financial

and capacity-building services to

organizations promoting livelihoods

and self-reliance of poor women,

envisioning an equitable society

based on social justice where

women are active partners in holistic

development.These interventions

have benefitted 60 million low-

income women in reaping the

benefits of socio-economic

empowerment.Through different

programmes on water and sanitation,

agriculture and livelihoods,

entrepreneurship, solar power,

FWWB intends to continue retaining

its focus on women by scaling up its

intervention to reach out to 1 million

women in the next five years.