Tamil Nadu - Madurai   

Now SHG women man events

T. Saravanan

MADURAI: : The self-help group movement has now become omnipresent and no wonder, it has gained an impetus to compete with professionals in the more competitive field of event management. Thanks to the Tamil Nadu Corporation for Development of Women initiative to train SHG members in the service sector.

Their first foray will be in wedding ceremonies. From food and beverage services to providing security to vehicles and footwear, these members will take over the conduct of the function. As event managers, they will also look after the children attending the function.

"SHG members, despite having technical training in electronic data processing (at least some of them, if not all), find it difficult to start an enterprise on their own, owing to financial crisis. Hence, the TNCDW has decided to provide them training in service sector activities where their only investment will be hard work," said S. M. Prabhakaran, Joint Director/Project Officer, TNCDW.

As a first step towards realising this objective, the TNCDW, in association with the Centre for Entrepreneurship Development, Tamil Nadu (CED-TN), organised an event management training programme for SHG leaders recently.

The members were trained in various aspects of event management associated with a marriage function. Since this programme was aimed at shaping the members to perform in a professional manner, the trainees were given identity cards, uniforms and mobiles.

"SHG members will find it difficult to venture into the market initially. Once they establish quality, they will be able to make an impact, for which the unique training programme will help them immensely," said R. Jayaraman, member secretary, CED-TN.

"The TNCDW also has plans to conduct training programme for manning private detective agency and self-defence," informed Mr. Prabhakaran.

"It is not new. We are already visiting marriage halls to collect the leftover food and distribute it to different orphanages in the city. But now we are being trained to manage the entire show from catering to childcare, which is quite enjoyable. We are at ease and are eager to take up event management assignments," said Umarani, leader of Meenakshi Mahalir Kuzhu.

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