With a strong belief on their competence, the Chhattisgarh Government has entrusted women self-help groups (SHGs) of the State with the 100 per cent responsibility of preparing and distributing ready-to-eat food, hot-cooked meal and breakfast to Anganwadi centres, officials stated.
Nearly 1,568 women self-help groups are conducting the work of ready-to-eat food preparation and distribution. likewise, distribution of snacks and hot-cooked meal is looked after by 22,226 women self-help groups of State. In Anganwadi centres, children of 6 months to three years as well as pregnant and lactating mothers are provided ready-to-eat food, murra laddoos and double fortified salt through take-home-ration system.
Moreover, the children of 3-6 years are provided breakfast and hot-cooked meal as per the decided menu. The amount for medicine kit distributed at Anganwadi centre has also been increased from Rs600 to Rs1000. For all round development of teenage girls, Sabla Yojana is conducted in 10 districts of State while in other districts, Kishori Shakti Yojana is operated.
‘The Chhattisgarh Mahila Kosh’ is operated in State to provide financial aid to women for self-employment activities. Under the scheme, women self-help groups are at first provided loan of upto Rs50,000 at nominal annual interest of 3 per cent, and then loan of up to Rs2 lakh is provided to them.
Till date, more than 25,000 women self help groups have taken loans worth Rs41.60 crore for business activities. likewise, with the help of saksham yojana, more than 800 women have become financially self-dependent. Moreover, schemes like Swavlamban Yojana, Skill Improvement Training Scheme and Entrepreneur Awareness Programme are also operated to provide financial aid and skill improvement assistance to women.
Moreover, School Education Department is operating schemes like free bicycle distribution scheme, free textbook distribution scheme. labour Department is operating free bicycle and sewing machine distribution scheme for female labourers and Higher Education Department’s decision to provide higher education to girls are proving beneficial in the all-round development of women in this State.
The State Government has lived up to its commitment towards security, protection and development of women and children by effectively implementing various schemes, programmes and laws. It is the result of State Government’s consistent efforts that level of malnutrition in children has declined, number of girls students in schools has increased significantly and socio-economic development of women has paced up, officials stated. The initiative taken by the Chhattisgarh Government to empower women by organising them in Self Help Groups (SHGs) has proved a success, officials claimed.
As many as 23,794 SHGs are successfully accomplishing the work of providing ‘Ready-to-Eat’ food, fresh food and breakfast to more than 49,000 Anganwadi and Mini Anganwadi centers run by the Women and Child Development (WCD) Department.
Among these SHGs, as many as 1568 are engaged in preparation and distribution of Ready-to-Eat meals (nutrition dietary supplements) while 22,226 SHGs are engaged in providing breakfast and fresh food. The Anganwadi and Mini Anganwadi centers are providing nutrition dietary supplement to more than 2,54,9000 children, pregnant and lactating women.
All these activities on one hand are helping the women in becoming organised and independent and on the other hand State is benefiting from the commitment shown by the women towards work and honesty of these women. Showing full faith in women, the State Government has handed over the complete work of preparation and distribution of mid-day meal in school to the SHGs.
Besides this, the SHGs are also engaged in preparation of school uniform, mushroom production, production of papad, badi, murabba, daliya, silk production, lac farming, bamboo craft, woodcraft, animal husbandry etc. income generating works. The women SHGs also play an important role in the campaign against malnutrition. Apart from becoming independent and organised, the women of the State are gradually raising voice against social evils. It was due to initiative taken by women, hundreds of liquor shops have been closed by the Government.
To encourage women and to provide financial assistance to them, the Chhattisgarh Mahila Kosh is running schemes like loan scheme, Swavlamban scheme , skill development scheme, entrepreneurship awareness scheme.
As a striking example of women empowerment, to cite an example in Bilaspur district is the ‘Prabhat Women Self-Help Group’ of Akola in Bilaspur district which started earning extra income from the work of preparing fresh meals and snacks for children of Anganwadi centres. The SHG has gained much popularity in the nearby areas. People of adjacent villages come all the way to Prabhat Self Help Group for taking loan at 5 per cent monthly interest. This group has started doing internal transactions of up to Rs1 lakh, officials informed.
Chairperson of the Group Prabhavati said that in 2006, 10 women had gathered to form ‘Prabhat Self Help Group’. later, they opened their accounts in the name of SHG at UCO bank, Masturi and deposited Rs100 per member in the account. The members of the Group used to meet twice a month and collect Rs50 each. Soon they started giving the amount so collected as loan to members at 3 per cent monthly interest and at 5 per cent to the non-members.
After the SHG collected nearly Rs10,000, the Group members decided to start vegetable business along with their work of internal transactions. But they did not have any land to grow vegetables. Hence, they availed the loan scheme of Chhattisgarh Mahila Kosh and took loan of Rs10,000. After taking a piece of land on lease, they started growing vegetables and selling it off.
Part of the profit earned from vegetable business was distributed among the members. Soon, they also started the work of supplying nutritious supplement meals at Anganwadi centres. However, they couldn’t take land on lease again. But as they have gained much popularity in the surrounding areas, people of other villages have also started taking loans from them at the monthly interest of 5 per cent. In this way, Prabhat SHG started internal transaction of up to Rs1 lakh. Part of profit so earned is distributed among the members.
Secretary of the Group Rajkumari told that after forming the SHG, all the members have become financially self-reliant. Inspired by their success, several other SHGs are following their example. In 2013, Prabhat SHG again took a loan of Rs50,000 from Chhattisgarh Mahila Kosh to expand their area of work. Using this amount, they started supplying ‘Murra laddoo’ in total of 60 Anganwadi centres of two circles under nutritious food supplement scheme. Now all the members of this SHG have become competent enough to meet their own needs as well as the needs of their children.