A New Chapter for Rural Women Entrepreneurs: First Entrepreneurship Facilitation Centre Launched in Simrawadi, Jhansi

On April 25, 2025, Development Alternatives (DA) marked a significant milestone in its mission to empower rural women through entrepreneurship with the launch of the first-ever Udyamita Suvidha Kendra (Entrepreneurship Facilitation Centre) in Simrawadi, Jhansi, Uttar Pradesh. Developed in partnership with the local Cluster Level Federations (CLFs), the centre brings to life DA’s vision of locally anchored, systems-led enterprise support that can unlock the full potential of women as drivers of local economic change.

The Centre represents a new paradigm in entrepreneurial ecosystem building, placing women-led institutions at the centre of enterprise development. As part of DA’s broader Women-Led Entrepreneurship (WLE) programme, the EFC is designed to address systemic barriers that have long prevented rural women from accessing resources, navigating bureaucracy, or growing beyond survival businesses.

A Systems Approach to Women's Economic Empowerment

The Entrepreneurship Facilitation Centre (EFC) anchors three interconnected functions designed to calalyse inclusive and resilient local enterprise ecosystems.

Ecosystem Building focuses on enterprise promotion through social innovation tools and prototypes, convergence with government schemes, capacity strengthening of Cluster Level Federations (CLFs), and sustained engagement with local stakeholders. By leveraging participatory tools like Comic Workshops, UdyaME Melas, District Entrepreneurship Coalitions (DEC) and Kaun Banega Business Leader (KBBL), the Centre creates enabling environments for both entrepreneurs and ecosystem actors to co-create solutions, build aspirations and activate local collaboration.

Enterprise Support Services offer tailored assistance across four critical pillars: technology access, financial linkages, market connections, and capacity building, enabling entrepreneurs to navigate their growth journeys effectively. The Centre offers women easy access to critical services from Aadhaar registration to digital onboarding that often-become administrative roadblocks to participation in formal schemes or loan processes. Entrepreneurs are supported in building business plans that reflect their lived realities - accounting for seasonal income patterns, local resource flows, and socio-cultural dynamics. The goal is sustainable enterprise rooted in everyday life.

Social & Enterprise Solidarity function nurtures a supportive entrepreneurial culture through initiatives like Brave Spaces, family and governance modules, peer-to-peer learning, and community-driven approaches that reinforce collective leadership and inclusive growth.

What sets this initiative apart is its anchoring in the local CLFs (Cluster Level Federation) that don’t only manage the Centre but also co-own its vision and operations. This aligns with DA’s belief that real systems change begins when institutions of the community, especially those led by women, become engines of economic resilience and inclusion.

The EFC is a prototype for what community-rooted, systems-led enterprise support can look like across India. As DA continues its work across Jhansi and other districts of Uttar Pradesh, this model offers a replicable and scalable blueprint for governments, partners, and communities working to build women’s economic power from the ground up.