Heroes of the Vertical

• Launched Uthori Awareness programme with 91,000 beneficiaries, including 10,000 students
• Ms. Manju Meena, Federation Leader of the Zawar- Sakhi Shakti Samiti of 5,000 women, honoured by XLRI Jamshedpur in the category of Social Entrepreneurship in Tribal Areas
• ₹100+ crore cumulative credit, with ₹10+ crore cumulative interest generated

A) Sakhi

Goal

To promote women’s empowerment - economically and socially.

Key Features

• Sakhi (derived from Sanskrit, the word ‘Sakhi’ means friend or companion)
• Works towards empowerment of women by making them financially and individually independent through sustainable grassroots institutions like federations, village organisations, self-help groups (SHGs) and microenterprises
• Provides leadership platforms, like federation heads, its members, and farmer producer organisations, that currently have 33% community women on their Board of Directors
• Ownership and entrepreneurship among women stand at an all-time high, through our homegrown brands like “Upaya” for apparel and “Daichi” for edibles, developed by Sakhi women; “Gauam” for dairy products produced by farmers, and Hearts with Fingers - the apex marketing body
• Cadre development for financial management, legal awareness, and community leadership, among other such initiatives, enable capacity building in identified talents across Hindustan Zinc

Major Activities & Achievements during FY 2023-24

• 7 federations across 7 operational areas at Rajasthan & Uttarakhand strengthened to take over and sustain the responsibilities of 2,052 SHGs
• 200+ Sakhi women trained to create a financial taskforce through book-keeping workshops
• Three-day non-residential Uthori training organised for spreading awareness amongst 213 Federation and Village Organisation (VO) leaders about gender-related issues, rights and legal provisions for women
• Launched Uthori programme reaching 91,000 beneficiaries for societal change advocating on critical issues such as domestic violence, child marriage, etc.
• Cumulatively, 7,351 loans worth ₹ 17.03 crore disbursed so far through family-based livelihood programme (FBLP)
• 5,076 applications to various government schemes facilitated so far through Sakhi Sewa Kendra
• 2,500 women given training on financial and digital literacy by the Digital Sakhis in Chittorgarh
• 9,000+ rural women came together to celebrate Sakhi Utsav
• ₹ 19+ crore cumulative savings

We have entered into a partnership with India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) for promoting financial inclusion amongst the unbanked and underbanked communities in our operational villages. The initiative aims at doorstep delivery of banking and insurance services to the remotest corners of these geographies. It seeks to make transactions cash-lite, within and between the institutions of Sakhi, as well as in general.

Sakhi - Uthori campaign

B) Sakhi Microenterprises

Goal

Strives to support sustainable livelihoods and empower women from underprivileged areas, to make them change agents of society.

Key Features

• Supports and enables women through development of enterprises
• Sustains the microenterprises that are owned and managed by the women members

Major Activities & Achievements during FY 2023-24

• 12 production units run by women, 380 women engaged in manufacturing and sale of 250+ products, including fresh dairy, ghee, oils, pickles, spices, namkeen and honey, apart from apparel and textiles
• 2 brands strengthened - Upaya (Apparel), Daichi (Food)
• Revenue of more than ₹ 1.5 crore generated via FMCG and textile sales
• Income of production Sakhis - ₹ 44.6 lakhs+ Sales by Business Sakhis - ₹ 21 lakhs+
• Market outreach - Currently operating in 11 major cities, like Delhi, Jaipur, Udaipur, Kota, Chittorgarh, etc.
• No. of stores and Sakhi Haats - 9
• Gifting range of Sakhi products started, business worth ₹ 4.77 lakhs done in the initial stage itself

• ₹ 2.7+ lakhs sales were generated at the stall set up during the India International Trade Fair in Delhi
• New products launched including 3 varieties of honey, 5 types of namkeen & also ventured into impact gifting
• Introduced fresh dairy products

CASE STUDY

An Inspiring Story of Grit & Determination

Married at the age of 14, Dali Khatik of Railmagra town in Rajasthan’s Rajsamand, has become an inspiration for women seeking to break free of the shackles of gender discrimination. The young girl who had spent her early life as a free bird suddenly found herself caged in her house, with complete restriction on free movement after her marriage. She had almost surrendered to her fate, giving up any hope of finding happiness again in life. However, the intervention of Hindustan Zinc and Manjari Foundation transformed her fortunes, encouraging her to join the Shital Self-Help Group (SHG).

Her decision to join the SHG emboldened her to fight the gender-based injustice meted out to her. She actively participated in gender perspective training sessions, and learnt about women rights and entitlements. As a staunch supporter of education as the key weapon to eradicate the evils of the society, she went on to pursue graduation and later started providing free education to needy students in the community.

Today, her story of grit and determination has become an inspiration for other women in her neighbourhood. She is grateful to Hindustan Zinc and Manjari Foundation for empowering her and enabling her to live a happy life.

My journey at Hindustan Zinc has been marked by significant milestones in social development, particularly through the Sakhi programme, which empowers over 20,000 rural women via microfinance. Hindustan Zinc’s commitment to empowering women, fostering gender diversity, and nurturing leadership, with a goal of 30% gender representation in leadership, has been truly encouraging

Neha Diwan Lead Sakhi Monitoring Eval. CSR Zawar

Sakhi Utsav-Women empowerment and inspiring inclusion