Walmart Foundation and Swasti Health Catalyst claim that they have trained more than 26,000 workers, comprising of 21,885 women and 4,137 men across 34 factories in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Punjab and the Union Territory of Daman, since the Women in Factories (WiF) program launched in 2011.
The WiF training program in India, which was launched by Swasti with funding from the Walmart Foundation, imparted critical life skills related to communication, balancing work and life, self-awareness, hygiene, reproductive health, occupational health, and safety, identifying personal strengths, gender sensitivity, and leadership skills, Walmart said in a statement.
Swasti also announced its intentions to develop and test approaches to scale-up the training in life and work skills, working with facilities and brands, and to bring the training and results to more women and more factories.
“At Swasti, we believe that we can contribute to larger development goals through an empowerment approach and particularly by the empowerment of women to help them to make right choices and to lead healthy lives. This program is helping to contribute to our mission and we are extremely grateful to be part of this global effort by Walmart Foundation, said Joseph Julian, Director of Swasti Health Catalyst.
India is one of the countries covered by the global Women in Factories program, which exceeded its goal to train 60,000 women in 150 factories by training more than 128,000 women in 181 factories in India, Bangladesh, China, El Salvador and Honduras by the end of 2017, the statement said.
“We are proud to support the dignity and empowerment of women who work in supply chains around the globe,” said Karrie Denniston, Senior Director for the Walmart Foundation.
“We applaud the progress made by Swasti Health Catalyst in India and look forward to continued impact for women and their communities,” he further said.
