The World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors on June 23 approved a new $150 million programme to support Tamil Nadu in improving access to quality jobs for 1.6 million women and increasing female labour force participation in the state.

Under the Tamil Nadu Women Employment and Safety Programme, more than 6,00,000 women will receive skills training and career support, and 18,000 women entrepreneurs will receive incubation support to set up their businesses, says a World Bank statement.

The programme will strengthen State capacity, technical partnerships and institutional structures for women’s employment, including by supporting the development of a common results framework, the rollout of Tamil Nadu Women’s Policy, state-level polices and a regulatory framework to facilitate investments to expand female labour force participation in non-farm sectors and women entrepreneurship, it said.

The World Bank support to the Tamil Nadu government has helped set up many safe hostels for women in the State. This operation will expand these enabling services to include creche facilities and elderly care as well as enhance options for safe transport and hotline call-centres for reporting cases of harassment and abuse against women.

The Programme will thus contribute to private/public collaboration for women employment and entrepreneurship opportunities. Under the Programme, a state-level platform, supported by private capital, will help women gain access to finance and raise awareness of financial products such as loan guarantee fund and micro grants for entrepreneurs, the release said.

The $150 million Programme loan from the International Bank of Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) has a maturity of 25 years with a grace period of 5 years, the release said.

“By skilling up, providing more access to finance and increasing the availability of enabling services such as crèches, safe hostels and transportation, this Operation will help women meet their aspirations of participating in the workforce and contributing to Tamil Nadu’s one trillion-dollar economy goal,” said Auguste Tano Kouame, the World Bank’s Country Director for India.

The Programme will support collaboration with industry associations, institutes of eminence and private organisations to strengthen access to and quality of housing and mobility options for women workers, female students and women entrepreneurs, said Muderis Abdulahi Mohammed and Pradyumna Bhattacharjee, the Task Team Leaders for the Programme.

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Published on June 25, 2025