Odisha women empowered through “Mission Shakti” as CM Naveen Patnaik completes 23 years in office
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Bhubaneshwar (Odisha) [India], March 5 (ANI): Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik completed 23 years in office on Saturday and during this period Odisha has transitioned from a backward state into a thriving development model on many fronts including women empowerment through “Mission Shakti”.
Notably, the “Mission Shakti” programme, which was launched in 2001, “With an objective, of helping women to achieve economic independence by enabling them to have independent employment and income, today has more than 6 lakh Women Self-Help Groups (WSHGs) with 70 lakh members.
The senior official said, “Women’s empowerment is something that is very close to the Chief Minister’s heart and it’s his sincere belief that no household, no society, no state, and no country has ever moved forward without empowering its women.”
To strengthen the activities of the existing WSHGs and to provide momentum to the formation of new WSHGs, a separate Directorate of Mission Shakti has been created under the Department of Women and Child Development.
Under this initiative, SHGs run paddy procurement centers, produce THR for Anganwadi centers, do electric meter readings, playing important role in urban development by partnering with Housing and Urban Development Department, running Government Ahara canteens, pisciculture in panchayat tanks, and so on.
Micro and Mini Industrial parks are being set up in all 30 districts of Odisha, and for this purpose, a revolving fund is being provided to District Level and Block Level SHG Federations For this a provisioning of Revolving Fund amounting to Rs 324 crores has been set aside.
This has helped scale up finance for women-run businesses.
“Institutional Finance for SHGs has multiplied manifold From 500 crore a few years ago, 10000 crore bank finance was disbursed to SHGs this year 50,000 crore for livelihood diversification and women-led entrepreneurship is aimed at in the next few years,” the senior officer said.
Many elected women representatives at the grassroots are from the SHG movement. Mission Shakti led by the vision of the CM truly provides a platform for the holistic empowerment of women.
