In an offer to boost the women entrepreneurs, the ministry of women and child development (WCD) introduced Mahila e-Haat, an online promoting stage for women, on Monday. Launched a day prior to the International Women’s Day on 8 March, the portal has been set up with an investment of under Rs.10 lakh from the Rashtriya Mahila Kosh – a autonomous body under the WCD ministry for the financial strengthening of women.

In this, the sellers can enlist their items on the portal without paying any fees. They can sell anything from clothes, toys, jewellery, etc. on this portal.

A senior official from the ministry said, “No money will be charged, at least till 31 December 2016, after which the ministry may charge a one-time fee but that again will be very nominal.”

Mahila e-HaatOn the first day of the launch, around 125,000 recipients from 10,000 self help groups enrolled themselves on the portal.

The main qualification criteria to enroll is that any women or women members from a self help group must be above 18 years old to avoid the issue of child labour.

However, all the sellers are required to have the Mahila e-Haat logo on their items. Moreover, this does not mean they will need to get rid of their own brand logos, both can be mentioned at the same time.