New Delhi: The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT), in collaboration with Meta, has launched a national training initiative to equip 25,000 women traders with digital business tools through the WhatsApp Business App.
The programme, titled Vyaapar Sakhi, focuses on supporting women-led small businesses by enabling them to adopt digital commerce practices. The training initiative, which will run from June to November 2025, aims to strengthen digital adoption among women entrepreneurs, particularly in tier-2 and tier-3 cities. In-person training sessions will be conducted in multiple regional languages to make the programme more accessible.
The women’s wing of CAIT will spearhead the training effort, providing participants with skills to set up and manage WhatsApp Business accounts, automate messaging, display product catalogues, and understand digital advertising.
While the partnership reflects growing interest in digital inclusion, it also comes at a time when micro and small women-led businesses continue to face barriers in scaling their operations online. According to CAIT, a large section of these entrepreneurs operate informally and lack access to structured digital training.
Shivnath Thukral, Vice President and Head of Public Policy at Meta India, stated that expanding digital access for women entrepreneurs could help improve local economic participation and community engagement.
He added that the initiative seeks to “unlock the potential of WhatsApp” in everyday commerce for women in smaller cities. With WhatsApp increasingly being used as a platform for business communications and transactions, CAIT’s programme marks a shift toward formalising small-scale digital commerce, especially among underserved groups.
