Praising the women of self help groups running the State-sponsored Indira Amma Canteens on the completion of one year since the first one came up at the behest of MDDA in the city on Saturday, Chief Minister Harish Rawat said that this was a matter of immense happiness that the all-women SHGs such as Serifina Service Center and Serifina Self Help Groups had been playing role of the mother in helping the women get organised. “We will have to give top priority to progress of women, social security to women and their economic empowerment. Besides, we would do everything to help the women, forming half of the population, progress fast,” he said. He said that currently 12000 women SHGs are working across the state, a figure that spoke volume of the strides the women are making in the direction of being self-reliant.
He said that his government had taken some major decisions concerning with women self- help groups. “All the deactivated SHGs across the state would be revived and loan- burdened SHG would be made free from loan by the state government. `5000 as wake up money would be granted to deactivated SHGs by the end of this month. Besides, `20000 as a grant will also be provided to start business activities. `100000 will be granted to women self help groups to do collective farming in rural regions and acquire land on lease,” he said, adding that the state government had decided to constitute a distribution board for women SHGs so that the products made by them might be marketed as part of women’s economic empowerment.
CM further mentioned that women SHGs would be assigned various sorts of works such as preparing school dresses, government furniture, hospitality and food related tasks in near future. “Some places in the food courts will be allotted to the women to promote their place in hospitality sector. Marketing of local handicrafts, local products and local dishes will be connected with women self help groups within three years,” CM said.
Dwelling on the objective behind starting Indira Amma Canteen, he said it had been conceived to provide low cost nutritious food to the economically weaker section of society. “Happily enough, it has now become identity of the of Uttarakhand. Inspired by the initial success, the state government has decided to open 100 such new canteens across the state,” he said. Appreciating the role played by MDDA, he said he had asked them to open two more canteens.
CM further said that a mass training campaign would be conducted for women self help groups with the assistance of NABARD, banks and educational institutes soon. “Women are blessed with skills naturally. What we can do is to help them polish such inherent qualities. I am sure the state would carve a niche for itself as one which would be identified with women empowerment,” CM said.