Enhancing livelihoods

Seventy five thousand poor women have benefited with an additional income of Rs.18.75 crore through a livelihood enhancement programme established by a unique corporate-NGO partnership between Hindustan Unilever Limited and DHAN Foundation.

Hindustan Unilever Limited, as part of celebrating its 75 years in India in 2008, partnered with the DHAN Foundation to enhance the Livelihoods of 75,000 poor women. This initiative of poverty reduction was in line with HUL’s commitment to the United Nations Millennium Development Goals that call for partnership for sharing resources and expertise.

The partnership through local community mobilisers helped to identify 75,000 poor women from 75 self help groups (SHG) and federations promoted by DHAN Foundation on specific themes such as microfinance, water and rainfed farming. These women were from local communities living in rural, urban, tribal and coastal regions in three states: Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.

The project enabled the women to mobilize a total Rs.52.5 crore and generate an incremental income of Rs.18.75 crore in just one year. The project thus helped to generate incremental income by a minimum of Rs. 2000 for each of these 75,000 women in one year.