Context:
A group of 30 women is working to establish Uttar Pradesh’s first all-woman unit focused on producing high-strength, eco-friendly green concrete bricks in Lucknow.
More On News:
- The initiative, titled Nirman by Women, is spearheaded by the private firm Ventura Prefab in collaboration with the State Rural Livelihood Mission (UPSRLM).
- It aims to challenge gender inequality within India’s traditionally male-dominated real estate and construction industry.
- Women make up a dismal 12% of India’s real estate and construction workforce and even then, they are largely confined to low-paying, secondary roles with limited growth opportunities.
- Training and Empowerment: In this pilot project, women are being trained in traditionally male-dominated roles, such as:
- Machine operation
- Batch mixing
- Concrete moulding
- The training empowers women with primary skills that were historically reserved for men.
About State Rural Livelihood Mission (SRLM)
- It is an autonomous body under the Rural Development Department of the State and incorporates as a Society.
- The Mission oversees implementation and related activities at the State level, led by a State Mission Management Unit (SMMU) headed by the Chief Executive Officer (CEO).
- SRLM’s goal is to engage, mobilize, and assist all impoverished rural communities in the state by organizing them into self-managed Self-Help Groups (SHGs) and their federated institutions and livelihood collectives.
- The initiative provides long-term, committed, and empathetic support, offering facilitation to help them overcome poverty and achieve sustainable progress.
- It transforms itself from ‘for the poor’ to ‘of the poor and by the poor’.
- It works on three pillars –
- Enhancing and expanding existing livelihood options of the poor;
- Building skills for the job market outside.
- Nurturing self-employed and entrepreneurs (for micro- enterprises).
- UPSRLM was launched in May 2020.
