Better Skills Better Care

Author(s)/editor(s)

UN Women and Dharma Life

Key Findings from the Midline Implementation Report

During the pilot phase, the BSBC initiative met or exceeded all targets, demonstrating the effectiveness of its integrated approach that combines women’s skilling, economic participation and access to quality early childhood care services. The results highlight how the programme empowers women by improving access to affordable childcare, skill development, job placement and entrepreneurial support, targeting low-income populations in rural and semi-urban areas. Across locations, primary beneficiaries included women who had limited or no prior paid work experience.

About Dharma Life Community Learning Centre

The ‘Dharma Life Community Learning Centre' aims to increase women’s economic participation while providing their children with a space to learn, thrive and grow.

This Center offers integrated vocational skilling, livelihoods training for women in India whilst also providing Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) in interventions targeted to low-income populations in rural and semi-urban India.

Implemented as part of the Gender-Inclusive Care Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Programme (GICEEP) funded by International Development Research Center (IDRC), Visa Foundation, in partnership with SAFEEM and Bopinc and on-ground partners Dharma Life and Tilti, the UN Women and Dharma Life Community Learning Centre is currently operating in three locations, namely, Ranchi, Satara, and Vadodara in India.

This initiative will build evidence of innovative models that support the creation of livelihoods for women, while improving children’s learning outcomes. It will generate crucial evidence of care delivery models that can sustain themselves with public, private or blended financing to benefit communities at scale. The second phase of the programme plans to increase the number of centers to include 18 more villages and to conduct a randomized controlled trial to measure their impact on women's economic empowerment. Please join us in investing in this innovative approach.