Digital Didi Changing Mindsets, Practices and Narratives
Through experience, it has been commonly observed that with the help of Women Entrepreneurs, a rural community can prove to be self-sufficient in organising their finances which tends to make the people of the community better informed and hopeful in able to receive their rightful entitlements. In this regard, Digital Empowerment Foundation, with the support of Collective Good Foundation, has launched a program in February, 2022 called MeraBills covering 7 states and 14 districts of India with the help of 2,500 Micro Women Entrepreneurs. In this program, a free-to-use Digital Tool (MeraBills App) for formal bookkeeping, online and offline business operations management, and business insights generation to be introduced in parallel to Women Entrepreneurs. This will include rigorous training on usage, features and other specifics, along with query resolution support, etc.
The program is designed to be implemented over a period of 6 months and to address the key challenges, a blended aid is proposed that would assist the recipient women.
To begin with, DEF would be identifying 2,500 women-led small businesses as per geographies mentioned below, who will undergo training and be supported through the program followed by 125 master trainers to be nominated by DEF, who are well-versed with financial literacy, digital book-keeping, and basic knowledge of enterprise management.
These master trainers are assigned to a batch of 20 women. A set of capacity building sessions to be delivered by DEF master trainers on basic financial and digital literacy for selected women entrepreneurs, either in-person, or in a hybrid model. Relevant assessments will be conducted by DEF for the delivered financial and digital literacy modules, either offline or online to get a sense of the outcomes. MeraBills App to be introduced to DEF master trainers and they will undergo Mera Bills training virtually over a span of approximately 1 week. This training would further be conducted with the selected women entrepreneurs.
Performance linked incentives would be given as either direct money transfers or in the form of added training and/or resources provided to high-performing recipients (those who have a progressive engagement with the training program). Throughout the project, DEF will be promoting sustained use of the digital tool through regular follow-ups and providing support.
Currently, the project is conducting an onboarding survey and identifying women entrepreneurs. Training in digital and financial literacy for women entrepreneurs is also ongoing simultaneously.
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