Shri Mahila Griha Udyog: Lijjat Papad, popularly known as Lijjat, is an Indian women’s cooperative involved in the manufacturing of various fast moving consumer goods. The organisation’s main objective is empowerment of women by providing them employment opportunities. Started in the year 1959, with a seed capital of Rs. 80, Lijjat has an annual turnover of around Rs. 6.50 billion in 2010, with Rs. 290 million in exports. It provides employment to around 42,000 women. Lijjat is headquartered in Mumbai and has 67 branches all over India. Lijjat is primarily a cottage industry, urban by its origin, that has spread to the rural areas. It is considered as one of the most remarkable entrepreneurial initiatives by women that are identified with female empowerment in India.

Self-Employed Women Association – SEWA: Self-Employed Women Association has made significant contribution to the empowerment of women. It has strived to integrate self-employed poor women with the mainstream economy through the twin strategies of struggle and development. Women are the worst victims of poverty. Poor women generally experience a variety of socio economic and cultural depreciation in society. The root causes of their plight are unemployment, lack of income and economic dependency.

The self-employed women of Ahmadabad organized and formed the Self-Employed Women Association — (SEWA) in 1972. The motivation and guidance was furnished by the leadership Ela Bhatt. SEWA has strived to create conditions of full employment and self-reliance for all its members.

The central concern of SEWA has been to secure the existence of its members by furnishing financial support in the form of micro credit to self- employed women. In order to provide finance facility at the earliest, the Shri Mahila SEWA Sahakari Bank Ltd. was registered in 1974. In the beginning, SEWA Bank started functioning in urban areas; later on it extended its operations to rural areas. SEWA began its activities in rural areas in 1975.