120509it is said,”When you empower a rural and tribal women, you in-turn make a family socially and economically independent, thereby energizing a complete village and ultimately contributing towards progress of a nation…”

It is not surprising to note that India has about 40 crore rural women and literacy rate is just about 69% in rural females. It is also true that rural India has taken a giant leap towards literacy and has been progressing credible faster, though about 9 crore rural India girls still remain illiterate.
Rural women have always proved their metal and strength in every sphere of life. May it be house-hold work, agriculture, handicrafts, tailoring, traditional crafts or liberal arts, rural women of India have always been in front and have even dominated the global fashion industry with their traditional art and skills.
120510Hindustan Zinc, Sesa Sterlite Limited company (Vedanta Group) realized this much earlier and with stupendous CSR and Communication teams at every location, the company has been able to bring together more than 6,000 rural and tribal women  and weaved them into about 475 groups, popularly known as self-help-groups (SHG). Each group has been recognized for its success and linked with banks and markets for optimum returns of the products they make.
The formation of SHGs and bringing together over 6,000 rural and tribal women has given Hindustan Zinc a unique opportunity and edge to further up-scale and strengthen this program and build a platform to motivate millions of other rural and tribal women, across the country.
This is with this thought Hindustan Zinc launched its social media campaign “Sakhi”. Campaign “Sakhi” will energize, motivate and bring in front the outstanding work done by these tribal and rural women.  Campaign “Sakhi” will also share important government policies and decisions and key statistics relating to Indian rural and tribal women.  The campaign has been launched through blog www.vedantasakhi.blogspot.in which would upload success stories of these women. Another platform for discussion, deliberations and knowledge is facebook page www.facebook.com/vedantasakhi. About 3,000 people have already aligned with the campaign and the blog is also touching over 100,000 page views.
The  ultimate objective is to strengthen social and economic empowerment in these rural and tribal women so that they not only empower their families but also the nation.
“SAKHI” will be a symbol of friendship, commitments, teamwork, associations, and progress with dignity and self-respect.