Women’s Entrepreneur Council to emerge from Mahila E-Haat, says Maneka

Speaking to Millennium Post, Union Minister for Women and Child Development Maneka Sanjay Gandhi said, “Mahila E-Haat is one of the significant programmes that we have started regarding economic empowerment and upliftment of women and this should eventually lead to the formation of the Women’s Entrepreneur Council. It will be one day as big as ASSOCHAM and FICCI.” The council is expected to emerge from this site in a year’s time.

Asserting that this platform has generated ‘self-employment’ for women, the minister said, “This is the first time such a thing being done. In Mahila E-Haat we let women making anything which includes goods and services. They put their stuff on their website free of cost and then we help them get buyers. They have already sold 2.5 lakh items within the short time. More people are joining every single day.” Gandhi said that the current business chambers are largely ‘male-dominated’.  

She explained, “For years I have been watching ASSOCHAM and FICCI and both of them are really male-dominated with two bankers as women representatives. Where are the women...they only are the wives and form subsidiary committees. So, we thought of making a strong advisory council to the government made only of women which advises government on entrepreneurship, work timings, unorganised sector and other things like that.”

 The council will emerge from the Ministry’s online platform –Mahila E-Haat – launched in March this year, to promote women entrepreneurship. Women will be voted on the website and the districts or states with highest votes will form the council. “This is beginning as what I really want is when we get a substantial number of women in this (Mahila E-Haat), which we will get in four to five months, they each get a vote. That vote will then translate into voting for district, state and the national women’s entrepreneur council. This will come out of this site (Mahila E-haat), hopefully in a year when it stabilises,” the Minister said.