CSR must support credit access, digital inclusion and new-age skills for women: Rekha Sharma

New Delhi, 25 March 2026 : Rajya Sabha MP from Haryana, Rekha Sharma, raised an important issue during Zero Hour in the Rajya Sabha regarding the effectiveness of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives in ensuring meaningful and sustainable women’s empowerment.

Highlighting the growing role of CSR in supporting women-focused programmes across the country, Smt. Sharma noted that a significant portion of CSR expenditure continues to be concentrated on short-term skill training initiatives that often end with certificates but do not always translate into employment, income generation, or sustainable livelihood opportunities.

She pointed out that many CSR interventions continue to channel women into traditional sectors such as tailoring, handicrafts, and beauty services, where market opportunities are limited. She stressed that real empowerment requires integrating women into formal markets, supply chains, and emerging sectors of the economy.

Raising a broader policy concern, Smt. Sharma stated that CSR programmes must increasingly focus on credit access, digital inclusion, and women’s participation in new-age sectors such as artificial intelligence, logistics, green energy, and advanced services.

She further emphasised the need for outcome-based CSR interventions rather than focusing primarily on training numbers, and called for stronger industry linkages, procurement opportunities for women-led enterprises, and robust long-term impact evaluation mechanisms.

Smt. Rekha Sharma underlined that women’s empowerment must move beyond training centres and extend to participation in markets, institutions, and decision-making spaces to ensure lasting and transformative change.