Session Chair

Women self-help groups and entrepreneurship.

Prof. Aanchal Sharma, a Business Communication faculty at UPES Dehradun, holds a doctorate from MICA, Ahmedabad, and has 12 years of experience in academia and industry. She has previously worked at FORE School of Management, Symbiosis International, and as a visiting faculty at IIM Sirmaur, SRCC, IMT Ghaziabad, SIMC Pune, and Symbiosis School of Liberal Arts. 

A visiting scholar at Clark University, USA, Prof. Sharma developed her research on gender and participatory communication. She teaches courses in managerial communication, corporate communication, and communication research methods. Her industry roles include positions at SBI Card and Ameriprise Financial Gurgaon. 

She has organized programs and workshops in qualitative research, personal branding, and social media. Prof. Sharma is UGC NET qualified, with a Master's in Journalism and Mass Communication from Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University and a Master's in Gender and Development Studies from IGNOU, where she was a gold medalist.

Participation in collective action is emancipatory for women, leading to socio-economic development. Historically, women have been active in environmental and social movements, mobilized by NGOs and government bodies for livelihood generation and empowerment. This session addresses women's participation and collective action in Self-help Groups (SHGs), cooperatives, and entrepreneurial initiatives in the Himalayan region.

Topics include women's roles in natural resource management, sustainable management of forest and farm produce, promotion and marketing of locally grown products by SHGs, capacity building by NGOs/government, advocacy within community and local governance, financial literacy for women micro-entrepreneurs, micro-credit, disaster management, impacts of migration and social mobility, digitalization of indigenous ecological knowledge, social media promotion, and overall empowerment through SHGs and collective action.