Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan will interact directly with the women of self-help groups on Friday. About 300 group member women from different districts of the state will reach Bhopal in this program to be held at the Chief Minister's residence. Chief Minister Chouhan will also distribute bank loans worth about Rs.200 crore to self-help groups. Self-help group members will also be connected virtual from all gram panchayats. The program will be telecast live through Doordarshan, regional channels and social media.
Social and economic empowerment of poor women of rural areas is being done by connecting them with self-help groups under the State Rural Livelihood Mission. About 3 lakh 84 thousand self-help groups have been formed in 45 thousand villages of the state, to which about 43 lakh families are connected. Out of these, about 16 lakh 79 thousand families have been connected with agriculture and about 6 lakh 19 thousand families in other activities.
In the recently concluded Panchayat elections, about 17 thousand members of these self-help groups have been elected to the posts of Panch, Sarpanch, Janpad and Zilla Panchayat members. Of these, 1907 Sarpanch, 429 Up Sarpanch, 46 Zilla Panchayat members, 381 Janpad members and 14 thousand 378 Panchs have been made. For the first time such a large participation of self-help groups has been seen in Panchayati Raj Institutions.