SIDBI’s EWEE Initiative: Empowering the Women of Rural Bharat through Electric Mobility

Jammu Tawi: With an aim to accelerate the deployment of electric vehicles in line with EV30@30 and increase the adoption of EVs in Rural BHARAT, Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI), the country's principal financial institution for MSMEs, announced a developmental support to empower women in form of blended finance funds such that credit access by rural women aspirants is eased. In partnership with Self-Employed Women's Association (SEWA) and partnered NBFCs the scheme brings different partners such as OEMs, NRDC and DFI on board.The current programme called EWEE (Empowering Women and Enhancing their Business through E-Mobility) was announced by Chairman and Managing Director, SIDBI, General Secretary, SEWA, MD, Revfin, MD AMU in presence of leasing, and representatives from OEMs, NRDC, SEWA members and other stakeholders in an online event attended by over 100 participants including. The scheme has been formulated as an extension to the first-of-its-kind rural e-mobility demonstration pilot (for supporting women entrepreneurs launched by SIDBI, SEWA and Natural Resources Defence Council (NRDC) on January 25, 2024. The pilot was aimed to increase transportation equity, improve air quality, and enhance rural livelihoods through the adoption of EVs.E-WEE will support inspirational and aspirational SEWA sisters initially in the two states i.e. Rajasthan and Gujarat. Thereafter it will be scaled to other states. The outcome will provide invaluable insights for formulating future national and state-level policies for electric mobility adoption in rural India. Another potential outcome can be alleviating the perceived risk among the potential adopters and financial institutions resulting in increased financial products, thereby boosting the adoption in real India improving quality of life and more employment opportunities. After this step SIDBI and SEWA shall work on risk mitigant models to induce credit flow.Shri Sivasubramanian Ramann, CMD, SIDBI said “The rural India is critical for the nation's development and the women are the backbone of it. The empowerment of women at the grassroots level is important to build the nation. One of the many ways to empower women is to improve the mobility options in rural parts to encourage them to start their businesses, job opportunities, etc. The role of SEWA to bring these entrepreneurs together to support their journey and build a community that supports each other as well is laudable. To manage the community of the SEWA sisters spread across vast geographies of India and spreading awareness among them is a humungous task but the enthusiasm of SEWA sisters to support each other under the guidance of SEWA leadership is making it possible.”CMD SIDBI advised that phase 1 target of rural e mobility should be fifty thousand 2 and 3 e wheelers.The E-WEE project brings the firm intent to ease mobility of women entrepreneurs of SEWA by providing access to affordable finance to purchase electric two-wheelers with the support of Revfin and AMU Leasing Pvt Ltd. The scheme will serve a multi-purpose i.e., it will increase access to affordable finance, second it will also empower the women by having ownership of the green asset and encourage other women to switch or adopt the clean mobility options.”Jyoti Macwan, Secretary General, SEWA said “The SEWA sisters appreciate the efforts made by SIDBI to bring down the financial cost of owning vehicles for the sisters through the project. We also thank the OEM partners and the NBFCs implementing this project. The steps taken to support and promote these entrepreneurs are important for society as well as the economic growth of the country. We are also targeting the uptake of 50,000 electric vehicles among the SEWA sisters within a year.”