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After the success of its women empowerment initiatives such as Kudumbashree — a women oriented, community-based, poverty reduction project — and She-Taxi, South Indian state Kerala is gearing up to set another landmark seeking to create the country’s largest social entrepreneurship network of women.

The programme, ‘Sandesh One’, scheduled to be launched by Chief Minister Oommen Chandy on January 12, will be a network of 1000-plus women to generate mass employment at the grass roots level by promoting various micro-enterprises.

The totally entrepreneur-driven venture is initiated by Kerala State Women’s Development Corporation (KSWDC) under the state Social Justice Department.

A top KSWDC official said the core objective of the initiative is to promote and implement socially relevant development initiatives from the grass roots level through a network of empowered women.

“[The] world is witnessing a social enterprise movement. Unlike conventional industries, social enterprise is about developing solutions against pressing societal challenges. The Sandesh One programme is designed to achieve this target,” KSWDC Managing Director PTM Sunish said.