The United Nations has selected Madhya Pradesh Women’s Finance-Development Corporation for its Public Service Award. The selection has been made for the corporation’s initiative of rural haats with sponsorship of the World Bank in nine districts of the State.
The award will be received by Madhya Pradesh Women’s Finance-Development Corporation Chairperson Sudha Jain, Principal Secretary Women and Child Development, the then managing director of the corporation Kanchan Jain, Commissioner Women’s Empowerment Kalpana Shrivastava and operator of Grameen Haat Chatti Bai. The award will be conferred at multipurpose hall of India International Centre in New Delhi on Friday at 3 pm.
Weekly Haat-bazaars have been successfully implemented for the first time under Swashakti project in Chhatarpur, Tikamgarh, Dewas, Indore, Sehore, Hoshangabad, Khandwa, Ujjain and Betul districts in the state with coordination of concerning panchayats. Haat-Bazaars were started at Purwa, Imaliya and Bharatpur in Chhatarpur, Bhitarwar, Ishon, Ghuwara in Tikamgarh, Dulhar in Khandwa, Bagdari in Betul, Palda, Doodhiya and Talawali Chanda in Indore and Digwad, Dodi and Khamliya in Sehore district.
The haat-bazaars commenced from Digwad in Sehore district on October 26, 2002. Concept of ‘Grameen Haat’ was concretised through joint efforts by self-help groups. Dual income resources were opened up by Grameen Haat. Women’s groups earn revenue through self-management by way of Tahbazaari while members of groups earn profits by selling their produce there. Haat-bazaars run by women have saved their labour and time and provided an important income source to them also. Grameen Haat-Bazaars have evoked good response and success. As a result, other institutions also replicated this formula mainly by World Bank-sponsored DPIP, DFID and Rural livelihood projects.
United Nation’s Public Service award is conferred in five categories. This year, United Nations has felicitated Morocco, Ethiopia, Kenya, Pakistan, Korea, Germany, Italy, Ecuador, Egypt, Jordan and India under various categories. The categories include ‘fight against and prevention of corruption’, ‘strengthening of public service delivery’, ‘boosting public participation in policy-related decisions about public service’, ‘information technology in government initiatives’ and ‘gender responsive delivery of public service’.
Only Grameen Haat of Madhya Pradesh from India has been selected in Asia Pacific. It is noteworthy that World Bank-sponsored Swashakti Project was underway in nine States in India. Haat-bazaars run by women have also been started under Tejaswini programme. These haat-bazaars have been started in Tikamgarh, Chhatarpur, Panna and Balaghat district.