Tag: Women’s Advancement

  • Committing to women’s reproductive health at Women Deliver 2019

    Committing to women’s reproductive health at Women Deliver 2019

    Women Deliver is the world’s largest conference on gender equality and the health, rights, and well-being of girls and women. It’s in some ways an unlikely event for an apparel business to attend, let alone be invited to speak. However, in a country where the number of women in the workforce is dropping rapidly (from 34% to 24% in the last decade), our industry is a crucial source of economic empowerment for low-skilled women as well as an advocate for advancing women’s participation in work outside the home.

    The triennial conference was held in Vancouver this June, with an attendance of over 8,000 delegates. Shahi’s head of Organizational Development, Anant Ahuja, was invited to speak on several panels to discuss the role of the private sector in supporting women’s empowerment and to announce some of our specific commitments. These include our commitment to extend P.A.C.E. training to 58,000* employees at Shahi as well as new commitment to provide reproductive health services as part of the Private Sector Action for Women’s Health & Empowerment led by the UN Foundation and others.

    Shahi has always understood that women’s ability to care for their reproductive health and plan their family’s future is directly related to their personal and professional development – as well as their ability to contribute fully to the business and to society. In 2019*, we committed to partner with the Family Planning Association of India (FPAI) to reach 9,000 workers in six of our factories, along with more than 10,000 community members, totaling 19,000 people, with women’s health information and services, including sexual and reproductive health that includes family planning, STI testing and treatment, and maternal and child health by 2020. Due to the challenges posed by COVID-19, we have extended the timeline of implementation of this commitment to July 2021. Learnings from this pilot initiative will lead to a wide-scale rollout of such services across more of Shahi’s factories.

    Good Business Lab will undertake rigorous research to understand the outcomes of the pilot and are testing a range of implementation methodologies to increase effectiveness ahead of an expanded roll out across the business in the coming years. Watch this space for more updates on the launch and the research outcomes.

    *Editorial Note: This post was originally published on June 26, 2019, and was updated on September 30, 2020.

  • Gap Foundation’s 40th anniversary celebrations

    In September 2017, Shahi was invited to be a part of Gap Foundation’s 40th anniversary celebrations. Three of our leaders were asked to speak about their experience driving Gap Inc.’s soft-skills training program called Personal Advancement and Career Enhancement (P.A.C.E.) across Shahi’s factories.

    P.A.C.E. has been close to our heart from day one – Shahi’s inputs were taken at the time of program creation along with other credible partners. Mr. Jalandhar Giri, a Director at Shahi, has led the program at Shahi since its inception.

    Because of Shahi’s commitment to this cause, we became natural partners, and with the assistance of Washington-based International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) and Swasti Health Resource Center, a Bangalore-based NGO, a life-transforming program came into being after intense research and deliberations.

    P.A.C.E. training at a Shahi factory

    The garment industry employs a majority female workforce who often do not get to build a stock of soft skills needed to advance in their careers and better overcome personal challenges. P.A.C.E. has been designed to allow them unlock their potential through over 60 hours of training in various modules ranging from communication to financial literacy. Shahi was the first organization to run P.A.C.E. in its factories and has extended capsule versions of this program to key influencers in the participants’ lives, including their male co-workers, supervisors and family members. Since launching in 2007, this program has expanded beyond factories to include women and girls in community settings. Shahi has trained more than 35,000 women under P.A.C.E. and our goal is to train 48,000 women by 2024.

    With Doris Fisher, Co-founder of Gap Inc.
    Shahi team with Doris Fisher, Co-founder, Gap Inc.

    At the Gap Foundation’s 40th anniversary celebrations Chitra Ramdas spoke about P.A.C.E. and its impact on female garment workers. JD Giri and Anant Ahuja were also invited to speak with groups from Banana Republic and Athleta who were keen to know  more about Shahi’s experience. A particularly exciting moment at the event was meeting Doris Fisher (co-founder of Gap Inc.) who started Gap Foundation just eight years after opening the first Gap Inc. store, with the ambition of “doing more” than just selling clothes. Through her commitment to advance women in the supply chain, P.A.C.E. has been scaled all over the world.

    Later in the week, Chitra and Anant were panelists along with Kindley Walsh Lawlor (former VP, Gap Foundation) and Hollywood actor Ashley Judd at an event held during the United Nations General Assembly. Ashley Judd is known for her social activism, particularly on women’s rights. She also sits on the Leadership Council of ICRW. The celebration was a reminder of the importance of investing in the women that power the global fashion industry and reaffirmed our conviction to keep innovating and doing more for them.

    We’re happy and honored to have been part of Gap Foundation’s journey and hope to continue to advance women all over the world together.