The World Bank has approved a new initiative to support the Indian state of Tamil Nadu in enhancing access to quality jobs for 1.6 million women and boosting female labor force participation. The program, titled Tamil Nadu Women Employment and Safety (WESAFE), involves an investment of $150 million.
Tamil Nadu is experiencing rapid urbanization with growing employment opportunities in sectors such as electronics and automobiles. Despite having one of the highest rates of female labor force participation in India, women's involvement remains significantly lower than men's by 32 percentage points. Many women are employed in agriculture or low-paying informal jobs. The Tamil Nadu government aims to address these issues as part of its goal to become a trillion-dollar economy by 2030.
The WESAFE Program plans to provide skills training and career support to over 600,000 women and offer incubation support for 18,000 women entrepreneurs. The initiative will also expand existing services like safe hostels and introduce new facilities such as creches, elderly care, safe transport options, and hotline call centers for reporting harassment.
"By skilling up, providing more access to finance and increasing the availability of enabling services such as crèches, safe hostels and transportation, this Operation will help women meet their aspirations of participating in the workforce and contributing to Tamil Nadu’s one trillion-dollar economy goal," stated Auguste Tano Kouame, the World Bank’s Country Director for India.
The program aims to strengthen state capacity through technical partnerships and institutional structures focused on women's employment. It includes developing a common results framework, implementing Tamil Nadu Women's Policy, and creating regulatory frameworks to facilitate investments in non-farm sectors and female entrepreneurship.
“Furthermore, the Program will support collaboration with industry associations, institutes of eminence and private organizations to strengthen access to and quality of housing and mobility options for women workers, female students, and women entrepreneurs,” said Muderis Abdulahi Mohammed and Pradyumna Bhattacharjee, Task Team Leaders for the Program.
Additionally, a state-level platform supported by private capital will help increase women's access to finance through awareness-raising efforts about financial products like loan guarantee funds and micro-grants for entrepreneurs.
The $150 million loan from the International Bank of Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) has a maturity period of 25 years with a grace period of five years.