Bharti

Bharti Walmart launches Women’s Economic Empowerment Initiative in India

Aims to provide sustainable employment opportunities to women and improve social and economic status

• ● To impact lives of 25,000 women through multiple initiatives by 2016
• ● To increase sourcing from women-owned businesses in India
• ● Aims to empower women farmers through training--to benefit over 2500 women by 2013
• ● Created more than 2,000 job-ready women in 3 years through Bharti Walmart Training Centres

New Delhi, September 15, 2011: Bharti Walmart, the joint venture between Bharti Enterprises and Walmart Stores Inc for wholesale, business to business and cash and carry operations in India, today launched its Women’s Economic Empowerment Initiative that aims to support and significantly expand economic opportunities for women across India. The initiative offers sustainable employment opportunities to women, particularly the economically weak, to help them acquire economic stability, improve their living standard and foster inclusive growth. This India-specific initiative forms part of Walmart’s Global Women’s Economic Empowerment Initiative announced on September 14th, by Mike Duke, President and CEO, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., that will use the company’s global size and scale to help empower women across its supply chain.

Announcing the initiative, Mr. Raj Jain, Managing Director and CEO, Bharti Walmart Pvt. Ltd. said, “Bharti Walmart believes strongly that women significantly contribute to the overall growth and prosperity of an organisation. In the next five years, our Women’s Economic Empowerment Initiative will help uplift 25,000 economically disadvantaged women in India. We have already trained over 2,000 women at our Bharti Walmart Training Centre, thus making them employable. The fact that 18 percent of our current workforce in India comprises women underscores our focus on this issue. Under this initiative, multiple projects, including training and procurement, are being initiated to reach out to women in different parts of India. We intend to impact their lives and help them live better.”

Bharti Walmart’s Women’s Economic Empowerment Initiative is a collaborative product of partnerships between the company and leaders from government, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), philanthropic groups and academia. The company aims to impact and improve the lives of 25,000 women in India by end-2016.

Bharti Walmart is currently engaged in the following projects as part of this initiative:

Cashew Project: The Cashew Value Chain Initiative was set up in association with CARE India to create sustainable job opportunities for women in the Tsunami-hit districts of Cuddalore and Nagapattinam. By creating opportunities for women to improve their literacy skills and acquire training in cashew processing, this project aims to provide steady incomes to 1250 women and enabled them to become financially independent and socially respected.

Bharti Walmart Training Centres: Currently, Bharti Walmart operates 4 Training Centres in Amritsar, Delhi, Bangalore and Zirakpur, the first three in Public Private Partnerships with the state governments. Under this initiative, the company has trained, free of cost, over 6890 people, of which 32% are women, to equip them with skills set for retail sector. Over 2650 people have been placed in various jobs.

Sunhara Walmart: The ‘Sunhara Walmart’ project aims to increase employability of women in Uttar Pradesh. Under this project, 120 women farmers from 3 villages have already been trained. We intend sourcing products from these women entrepreneurs by end-2011. By 2013, the project will impact the lives of 2500 under-privileged women.

Education: Our Education initiatives are aimed at improving the quality of education for children in Government and NGO-run schools. We have partnered with Bharti Foundation and HOPE Foundation to adopt 50 schools and impact 20,000 children, of which 75% will be girls.