- Will extend help to support women for entrepreneurship
- Will help create awareness about financial literacy & prepare a master file with their important documents for future use
- The three-phase initiative would help women explore their talents and earn extra-income as well
IIM Indore conducted a workshop on Financial Planning & Independence for the women employees of the community on February 10, 2020. The objective of the workshop was to encourage the women from the lower income group of the society to gain awareness about financial literacy and be able to manage their financial planning. The session was conducted by Ms. Shanu Mehta, Entrepreneur and also a visiting faculty at IIM Indore.
Professor Himanshu Rai, Director, IIM Indore opened the workshop by stressing on the need for women to become financially independent and realize their true potential. Encouraging the women to achieve their dreams, he said, ‘Whenever any woman wants to do something new or start something out of the league, people tend to discourage her or give her reasons why she would definitely fail. Do not be discouraged’. He noted that IIM Indore would like to encourage the female employees, who have talent, to not only showcase their talent, but also gain extra income.
The initiative comprises of three phases. The first phase which started today will have three further sessions on financial literacy with a gap of fifteen days each. These sessions would help these women find ways in which any informal loan taken (verbal loan from any third person) can be converted into formal loan. The second phase would have a follow-up session on financial stability progress; and also a session on how they can generate extra-income. The institute will recognize the talents or skills these women have, will enhance their skills and provide guidance as to how to manage their time effectively and gain some extra income using their skills. The third phase would deal with creating a master file of all the important documents.
Ms. Mehta noted that for growth and security in life, every woman must be financially independent and have knowledge about how to manage the income and expenses. ‘You should always have a budget for yourself—as to how much you’re going to spend, or save in a particular week or a month. Always note down the amount you’re saving or spending in your daily routine. This would help you implement your budget planning’, she said. Sharing the importance of the schemes provided by the government, Ms. Mehta said that the first step towards this would be proper documentation. ‘You can take benefit of any scheme only if you have proper documents with you—like your aadhar card, pan card, voter ID, etc. You need to understand the importance of your own identity cards and prepare a master file’, she said. She noted that IIM Indore and herself would help all the female employees (who do not yet have/or have misplaced any of the important documents) in collecting the documents. She advised them to never share any of the personal document details and be aware of the fraudsters. She concluded her talk giving examples of four women entrepreneurs who after all the struggle were able to achieve their goals.
She said that the idea behind this talk was to help the women, especially the ones working as security guards or housekeeping, to be financially secure. ‘Many of these women may have loans, many might not even be aware of the government schemes, many might not know the importance of identity documents, etc. We aim to help such women in living a life with self-confidence, with having income for themselves and also being aware of right financial decision making’, she said.
The session was attended by all the female employees from the housekeeping and security department and administrative staff.