Leading health insurance company partners with Fiinovation

A leading private sector health insurance company in India entered into a strategic partnership with Fiinovation, a global Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) consulting firm, and Pinnacle Skills India, an NGO that works towards empowering youth through skill development and education.

The programme's key objective is to provide skill development opportunities to women from financially disadvantaged communities in 36 districts across 8 states of India. Under this collaboration, Fiinovation and Pinnacle Skills will extend their services to facilitate the corporation's social welfare project for training the youth to take up the roles of General Duty Assistants (GDA).

The project's mandate includes community mobilisation through awareness activities, setting-up training centres for skill development, and ensuring employment opportunities. The complete CSR portfolio will be managed and monitored by Fiinovation. Pinnacle Skills India took the responsibility to arrange for 'On-Job Training' of the beneficiaries, in hospitals, and multi-speciality clinics.

Upon completion of the training, the beneficiaries will be duly assessed and issued certificates by National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) and Sector Skill Council and provided with job placements as GDAs.

Speaking on the launch, Dr. Soumitro Chakraborty, CEO, Fiinovation stressed on the need and importance of women empowerment and their skill development. He stated, "There is a serious decline in women workforce participation due to lack of opportunities, safety and other social stigmas. We want to contribute towards making a social and economic change."

"Percentage of working women has declined over time. With 36% of women being employed in 2005-06, the number has decreased to 24% in 2015-16. This decline must be a major concern for economy and society at large. Owing to the high gender inequality at the workplace, there is an urgent need that calls for an overhaul. It goes without saying that we need to shift focus towards education, skill development and employment opportunities for women, more aggressively than before. Our society has to adapt and let them take their rightful positions, which they deserve. For the greater good, if more women become part of the paid labour force, it will help raise India's GDP by an additional 18% by 2025," Dr. Chakraborty added.