India: Project Sankalp to Promote Women in Tourism

In India, with the aim of enhancing sustainability and enhancing employment prospects for women in the tourism industry, the ‘Sankalp: Safe Tourism Campaign‘ will be formalized. Originally introduced as a 15-day initiative from August 10 to August 25, it will now be rolled out progressively by categorizing 50 tourist destinations into 20 clusters.

The initiative has received approval from the Central Ministry of Women and Child Development Department as part of the “Nirbhaya Scheme.” It is being executed in partnership with various entities including the Madhya Pradesh Tourism Board, UN Women, Women and Child Development Department, Urban Development and Housing Department, and Police Department.

The project will create a favorable environment for women. This will involve training capacity building for concerned stakeholders. It will also raise awareness about women’s safety and provide self-defense training. Additionally, it’ll conduct security audits of tourist places and ensure the presence of as many working women as possible.

“The Safe Tourist Places Project for Women is an important effort towards women empowerment in the state. This will develop sensitivity towards women and a sense of security among the tourists in the state,” said secretary of Tourism and Culture and managing director of Tourism Board, Sheo Shekhar Shukla, while addressing the gahtering at a workshop at Palash Residency on Monday.

He stated that women were being trained in various skills such as tourism sakhi, guide, driver, chef, boat driver, hotel executive, souvenir producer, and more as part of the project. He also mentioned that in the future, the services of these trained women would be utilized for important tasks like museum guiding, security arrangements, and temple management.

“At present the target of training 10,000 women is being accomplished. Efforts are being made to provide them employment in the field of tourism, by training them so that other women also get inspired by them”, he added.

Director Manoj Singh and Pro Vice Chancellor of Rabindranath Tagore National University Dr Sangeeta Johri, Superintendent Engineer Urban Development and Housing Department Gurmeet Singh Saluja,and colleagues were present in the workshop.