FICCI Ladies’ Organisation out to empower UP women
LUCKNOW: Creating industrial parks for women entrepreneurs, establishing mahila haat to promote crafts by women artisans, setting up a skill development fund, especially for women and encouraging land ownership by women: these would be on the agenda of the Lucknow and Kanpur chapter of FICCI Ladies Organisation (FLO), the women’s wing of Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI).
Chief minister Akhilesh Yadav along with MP Dimple Yadav and filmmaker Farah Khan launched the FICCI FLO Lucknow-Kanpur chapter, the 13th in the country, at a glittering function at Vivanta by Taj on Saturday.
Archana Garodia Gupta, FLO president, submitted the agenda to the CM, seeking his support in the implementation of plans for women’s empowerment.
WE, the Women’ s Employment initiative, to create jobs for women in different fields and work to change the socio-economic map of Uttar Pradesh was also launched on the occasion. Sharing the plans under WE, Archana said, “While WE is a pan-India initiative of FICCI FLO, in Uttar Pradesh, the focus would be on creating crafts of Uttar Pradesh through e -commerce. In this way, the women artists of the state would be able to connect to the national and international markets sitting at home.”
The other plans for the state include promoting women guides for UP tourism. “Why can’t heritage sites in UP be managed by women? Why can’t we train some women guides for the tourism department?” asked Archana.
She also shared the plan of rop- ing in women for non-academic jobs in schools. “Women can also work as guards, bus drivers and conductors. So we will hold meetings with various schools across the country to encourage them to hire women for such jobs,” Archana said.
CM Akhilesh Yadav promised all possible support to the FICCI FLO. He said, “A lot of things on the agenda of the FLO are already on the agenda of the state. However, the state would try to incorporate the ideas to make the existing schemes better.”
Addressing the women members and past presidents of FICCI FLO, Dimple Yadav said, “There is no power bigger than that of determined women.” She said that there was direct relationship between economic development of women and progress of families.
Jyotsna Kaur Habibullah, chairperson of FICCI FLO Lucknow and Kanpur chapte, said that the focus of the chapter would be on vocational training for girls and encouraging entrepreneurship. She said there were 120 members of the chapter.
The organization would also work on agri-business related skill development and cottage industry for women in rural UP, she added.
Special guest for the function, Farah Khan urged all men to support their wives, sisters and daughters. She said, “It does not diminish your power. Rather, it makes you a better man.”