The Foundation is keen to lay emphasis on the girl child and women’s empowerment in most of the projects it undertakes. Stree Shakti is one such initiative at Vijayanagar where 32 women have been trained to work as supervisors in blast furnace, stores and as payload operators. They are confident to be able to undertake non-conventional jobs like crane operators. Contractors, who were skeptical about this initiatives are seeing the difference that this has created in terms of employment as well as new vocational opportunities for women.

BPO at Vijayanagar
A non-voice rural Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) unit in functioning at Vijayanagar in collaboration with Lason India Ltd. 300 rural girls are presently doing data entry and data processing which includes conversion, coding, keying and auditing. The girls are given typing training for three months after which their skills are challenged through rigorous test conducted at the BPO and by Lason India. Girls from neighboring villages are attracted to this facility. JSW Foundation proposes to involve 5000 girls and boys by establishing several such BPO units at other locations.

Vocational Training
The Foundation is supporting vocational training in Vijayanagar and Vasind. This includes courses in tailoring and fashion designing, beautician, electrician, motor rewinding, electronics, welding & fabrication, computers, welding and masonry. At Vasind, a study was conducted to assess the levels of utilization and benefit to these students. 80% of surveyed students were using the skill that they had learnt towards revenue generation for themselves and their famililies. The Akanksha Vocational Training Centre at Vijayanagar stitches uniforms for hospitals and school. for promising candidates, the Foundation has gone the extra mile and sponsored off site training programs..