Women participation in the workforce has historically been of grave concern. According to The Frontline Index Report by BetterPlace, women make up for only 3% of the total frontline workforce. To bridge this gender gap and increase women participation, BetterPlace, India’s largest full-stack tech platform for frontline workforce management, has partnered with British International Investment (BII), the UK’s development finance institution and impact investor, to fuel its ambitions to upskill and employ 100,000 women workers by 2024.
As part of this partnership, Betterplace will bring together a network of partners from across the country that are equipping women workers to build a better life for themselves, while also mobilizing and sensitizing employer organizations who are actively working towards building an equitable frontline workforce.
Commenting on this partnership, Pravin Agarwala, Co-founder and Group CEO at BetterPlace said, “The impact as a result of ensuring gender equality in the workforce is massive. According to a McKinsey Study, a whopping $12 trillion could be added to the global economy by advancing gender equality. We are honored to be partnering with British International Investment and working towards bridging the gender gap in our frontline workforce. I strongly believe that with the right intent and a robust tech platform, we can create an ecosystem which is conducive to women workforce participation. I hope that this initiative is one of many that would create a future workforce which is equitable, productive, and geared towards creating immense value to the Indian economy.”
According to the data collected from BetterPlace’s Rocket, an end-to-end recruitment marketplace that provides a pre-skilled pool of workers to enterprises, 23% of the users on this platform are women. However, only 3% of them actually work in a company with most earning somewhere between INR 16,000 to 17,000 per month. This initiative would not only aim to increase women’s participation in the workforce but also aims to increase their earnings per hour by more than 10%.
Manav Bansal, Managing Director and Head of India, British International Investment, said: “BII is pleased to partner with BetterPlace on this pilot project which aims to accelerate women’s entry into India’s workforce. Increasing inclusive economic opportunities remains a critical precondition for productive and inclusive development within any country, and I am thrilled that BII’s flexible capital will back a tech-enabled programme designed to provide employability support and skills development for women – increasing their participation in the economy and improving their livelihoods. Through successful implementation of this model, we see strong potential for this programme to serve as a blueprint for transforming the workforce and uplifting women’s economic empowerment both in India and across the world.”
With over 30 million frontline workers on the platform, BetterPlace is India’s largest full-stack tech platform for frontline workforce management.