Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani on Thursday announced arranging a series of Women’s employment fairs, beginning with Ahmedabad to be followed by other places, to encourage women’s empowerment and provide more job opportunities to womenfolk living in nearby areas.
Inaugurating the first Women’s Industrial Park spread over 18.32 hectare at Sanand, he said that women have come out of their image of homemaker and have emerged as successful managers of business and industry. It is the call of the time. He said that Gujarat provided favourable opportunity for women to start own units, ranging from small cottage industry and soft skills to large engineering and manufacturing units.
The Chief Minister recalled that it was Prime Minister Narendra Modi had initiated several women-centric schemes when he was the Gujarat Chief Minister.
He said that Gujarat had prepared Gender Budget totalling Rs 56,000-crore for 653 women’s welfare schemes, handed over dairy management to Sakhi Mandals with membership of over three lakhs women, increasing women’s quota to 50 per cent in local self-government institutions, creating 33 per cent posts in the police force for women, waived off entire tuition fee for women in medical colleges.
The Chief Minister congratulated the women entrepreneurs while handing over 103 plots to them, who in turn provide job to 5,000 women workers from nearby villages, thus becoming ‘job-givers’ from ‘job-seekers’.
He said that several industries have been set up in the Sanand Industrial Estate spread over 2,056 hectare, thus silencing the political adversaries who were bent on making Sanand another Singur. He said there are nearly 200 Industrial Estates in the State, known for zero lockout and industrial peace in the State. He said the Government also encouraged MSME sector, would build multistory industrial sheds with modern plug-and-use facilities, allocating Rs 1,000-crore for this sector.