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Government eMarketplace (GeM) commemorated the success of “Womaniya on Government eMarketplace” at Constitution Club in New Delhi on Saturday. 

Launched in 2019, the initiative has sought to encourage the participation of women entrepreneurs and self-help groups (SHG) from the informal sector on the GeM portal. It facilitates the sale of their products directly to various government buyers sans intermediaries across categories of handicrafts and handloom, accessories, jute and coir products, bamboo products, organic foods, spices, home décor, and office furnishings etc. 

Presently, 1.44 lakh+ Udyam-verified women micro, small enterprises (MSE)—known as “Womaniya”—are registered as sellers and service providers on the GeM portal and have fulfilled 14.76 lakh+ orders worth Rs 21,265 crore in gross merchandise value (GMV).

Savitri Singh, Deputy Chief Executive, NCUI was the chief fuest who emphasised the contribution of women as entrepreneurs in the society and shared the initiatives of NCUI cooperative education field projects tailored towards the socio-economic growth of women from SHGs to cooperative societies in North East and underdeveloped areas of India.

A series of steps have been taken to develop and roll out new business processes and functionalities for the promotion of “Womaniya” on GeM. Notable steps include: the development of dedicated product categories for the listing of handicraft, handloom, khadi, and innovative products; creation of GeM outlet stores to promote products from the under-served seller groups; marketplace filters to distinguish products made by “Womaniya” and SC/ ST entrepreneurs; and market icons to help government buyers identify products made exclusively by “Womaniya”.

GeM also launched a new service vertical ‘Stitching and Tailoring Services’ on the portal to provide women seamstresses in urban and rural areas with hyperlocal “access to markets” opportunities for delivering office décor/accessories to government offices and dress uniforms for different departments. 

GeM has inked memorandums of understanding (MoU) with Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) to train, assist and enable women-led micro and small enterprises, women entrepreneurs, and SHGs in public procurement, and with Usha Silai School to train and upskill women seamstresses as service-providers in public procurement.

The “Womaniya” initiative seeks to address the triple challenge of access to markets, access to finance and access to value-addition faced by women entrepreneurs and strives to align the untapped entrepreneurial energy of last-mile producers and service providers in India with local government buyers.