Empowering women through entrepreneurship

Coming from Panaiolaipaadi, a village near Thiruvannamalai, Sathya Sundari, 30, had no inhibitions about participating in a four-day workshop for women entrepreneurs along with her mother-in-law, husband and eight-month-old baby.

The workshop was organised by TiE Global in association with the local chapter, and Sathya was among the 25 women shortlisted from 150-odd applicants.

Stating that this was her first-ever address in a public forum, the young mother said her hamlet’s only connection with the outside world is a single bus that makes a trip once daily.

“I have a passion for making jewels. While becoming an entrepreneur has been my dream, I did not know how to market the stuff. I thank TiE for instilling confidence in me,” she said.

There were a couple of others too from rural background amidst the city-bred women chosen to attend the workshop under TiE Global’s recently launched All India Road Show on Women’s Economic Empowerment through Entrepreneurship project.

The workshop aims to unleash value creation among aspiring women in tier-II and III cities across the country.

This was the second of the five workshops proposed under the project. While the maiden event was held in Warangal in Telangana, the others are scheduled in Jaipur (Rajasthan), Nagpur (Maharashtra) and Durgapur (West Bengal) and slated to be held within the next 10 days.

The workshop is being funded fully by the US Embassy in India. The session was led by the US-based mentors Seema Chaturvedi, Chairperson of the project, and Komal Goyal, Managing Partner, 6e Technologies and India-based mentor Hemalatha Annamalai, founder and CEO, Ampere Vehicles.

Craig L Dicker, Counsellor (Cultural Affairs), US Embassy in New Delhi, said the exercise exemplified the potential of the participants in creating an entrepreneur-friendly environment in India.