Health Minister K.K. Shylaja on Friday said that the support of various non-governmental organisations, corporates and nationalised banks would be crucial for the success and sustainable income generation of social business ventures by women entrepreneurs from various financial and educational backgrounds.
Addressing a plenary session on “Policy Dialogue: Sustainable Entrepreneurship and Social Business Empowerment in South Asia” at the second day of the International Conference on Gender Equality, Ms. Shylaja said the effective marketing of various products and services by competing against the powerful marketing strategy of rival players was continuing to be a challenging experience for many new women entrants.
“There are uneducated women who do not have any business idea or finance. There are also women who do not have the budget but very good ideas for business. Our aim is to offer them all a sustainable option for income,” said Ms. Shylaja.
She said that those having traditional knowledge should also be able to explore it for generating a sustainable income.
Stressing the need to equip poor women for their livelihood, the Minister said it was time to look at the successful model in other parts of the world to begin with. “In the years to come, Kerala should be ready to come up with its own model.”
Ms. Shylaja said the generation of profit alone was not the aim of such ventures. “What we seek is a sustainable income generation option for addressing the problems of poor women and their families”.
Nishtha Satyam, Deputy Country Representative, U.N. Women, chaired the plenary session.
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