Ernst & Young generated employment for more than 10,000 women in Madhya Pradesh during COVID-19.
In April, chief minister had launched Jeevan Shakti Yojana for women to manufacture cotton masks as a source of income generation. Ernst & Young, a multinational professional services firm with headquarters in London, England, supported the initiative, which involved setting up a website, SMS facility for registration and to communicate information on assignments.
On the website’s launch day, over 1,000 women including self-help groups and NGOs registered themselves for the scheme. Now, more than 10,000 women are part of the programme. Each woman has been given an order of 200 masks while their teams coordinate with officers and organisations in 376 urban local bodies to establish a smooth flow in the selling and buying of these masks. They also ensure that payments are transferred within 24 hours to bank accounts of women entrepreneurs.
Under the programme, more than 10 lakh masks have been made while over 5,000 women have already received amount in their bank accounts. EY has also helped to secure a combined order of over 5 lakh masks from more than 25 large Indian business establishments.
