Modi pitches for schemes to make poor self-reliant

Ruing that the schemes designed by the previous governments for uplift of poor will only make them more dependent, Prime Minister Narendra Modi today stressed on the need to frame policies which will ensure dignity with self-sufficiency to the needy.

"A person breaks down completely when he becomes dependent on others. In such a situation, he would think of dying instead of living such life. There is no better thing than bringing such persons out from that miserable situation," Modi said during a function at Mahatma Mandir here.

The Prime Minister lamented over the prevailing schemes and programmes running in the country and said these would only make the poor under-confident and dependent on the government.

"Due to our bad luck, the schemes and programmes that run in our country are such that they make poor people dependent on government instead of making them self-dependent and self-confident. If government programmes stop, the poor will die of hunger," Modi said.

"Can't we change this situation. God has given us hands, intelligence, education and in the same way he has given all those things to dalit, tribal and poor. What he has not got is opportunity. If he gets opportunity, he would also not like to live a life of dependent," Modi said.

"We have to give them chance to be self-reliant. They also want to live life with self-respect. They will get self-respect if they are given an opportunity to stand on their own feet. Self respect of this country depends on self-respect of each of the 125 crore people of India," he said.

On his 64th birthday today, Modi inaugurated 11 new welfare schemes of Gujarat government for uplift of youth, women, people under BPl category along with schemes of medical services for poor. The schemes were promised in this year's budget of the state government.

Modi also remembered Mahatma Gandhi and his philosophy of self-reliance."This is Mahatma Gandhi's land, where we are taughtself-reliance, self-respect and self-dependency. These morals should be supported by governing system," Modi expressed.

He said women are behind the success of Gujarat's dairy industry and when he was the chief minister, he ensured their financial independence.

"Gujarat is having a leading place in dairy sector. Officials such as chairman of Amul or Dudh Sagar dairy are usually felicitated for outstanding work. But, it is the hard work of women which made it possible. These women are the real entrepreneurs, who own 10, 20 to 25 cows," Modi said.

The Prime Minister recalled his days as Gujarat CM and stressed the need to motivate women involved in providing milk to dairies through co-operative societies.

"We need to motivate such women. When I was the Chief Minister, I asked these dairies to deposit the money directly into the account of that woman only, not into the account of a male member. Because, men used to drink something else with that money. Since it stopped, I received blessings of lakh of women," he said.

The Prime Minister also expressed his concern over grain conservation and stressed the need for godowns.

"Godowns are not enough against the quantity of grains produced in our country. Our farmers produce grain in large quantity, but they decay. Why should we not encourage farmers to come together and build godowns in the villages itself. This was introduced in our budget. This will help farmers to get good price of their products," he added.