Stressing on the need for women’s empowerment in improving the quality of rural economy, Chief Minister Harish Rawat said on Wednesday that the State Government is all set to establish Women Entrepreneur Park (WEP) over 200 acres of land of SIIDCUl in Udham Singh Nagar.
“The women should come forward to give leadership to the uplift of the villages,” he said while addressing a day-long workshop for the promotion of toilet construction under Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) in three blocks in Dehradun district’s, namely Doiwala, Raipur and Sahaspur.
The gram pradhans, members of self-help groups and the nodal officers were present among others. He stressed the role of the all-women SHGs in ensuring participation of the women and the children under SBM to take things ahead.
CM said that they should develop a mechanism to operate community toilets. “Gram Sabhas should provide water to the community toilet through MNREGA scheme. My Government would help them. However, the initiative must be taken right from the school
levels. To improve quality of water, the Gram Sabhas can install filtration plant in the tube wells. local youths can be appointed as water vendors. If the youth come forward the State Government would make projects so that they would get interest free loans. Besides, they can be made solar vendors as well,” CM said.
Harish Rawat suggested a few simple things by which the people can have a better life style. “Women should serve boiled water to their wards to ensure their health. Guava saplings should be planted to keep anemia at bay. However, children’s education is the most important. The State Government is providing Mandua, Kala Bhatt (a pulse) and iodised salt to the pregnant women and now we are considering to add Jhangora to the list. The positive result of these initiatives are visible as mother mortality rate (MMR) and infant mortality rate (IMR) have declined in the district significantly,” he said.
Harping on his favourite women empowerment theme, CM said there was no alternative to involving the women in the rural uplift schemes. “They must be encouraged to provide leadership in development right from the rural blocks. State G focus is trained thus on building up all-women SHGs which are important instruments in women empowerment and rural development. With this end in view, the State Government is giving five percent bonus to the Women SHGs over their annual turnover. If they start business we are giving `20,000-`25,000 as stand- up grants. This aside, the women SHGs are being given first preference on the lease of Gram Samaj’s lands,” he said.
The CM felicitated Gram Pradhans who made their villages 100 percent open defecation-free. Among those present were district panchayat president Chaman Singh, parliamentary secretary Rajkumar, DM Ravinath Raman and CDO Alok Kumar Pandey.