The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Your victory is my victory, Jayalalithaa tells SHG members

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Aug 26, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Your victory is my victory, Jayalalithaa tells SHG members

Special Correspondent

Launches a slew of projects, estimated to cost Rs. 11.97 crores

WORDS OF CONSOLATION: Chief Minister Jayalalithaa consoling Kathammal of Vikramangalam village, Madurai District, during the meet of the women self-help groups in Chennai on Thursday. — Photo: S. R. Raghunathan

CHENNAI: "Your victory is mine and I hope you will treat my success as yours. Work for the onward march of the movement for the empowerment of women. Each of you should enrol a minimum of two members and guide them to record achievements just as you have done."

This is how Chief Minister Jayalalithaa motivated members of women self-help groups (SHGs) at a State-level meet here on Thursday. She also launched several projects, estimated to cost Rs. 11.97 crores.

Ms. Jayalalithaa, who recalled the steps taken in the last four years for promoting the SHG movement, also announced new projects for them. The Government had allotted Rs. 50 crores for providing a revolving fund to 50,000 SHGs at the rate of Rs.10,000 each. Training in entrepreneurship development would be imparted to 1.5 lakh women additionally this year. The Government had earmarked Rs. 5.78 crores for this purpose.

Fashion designing

Among the new schemes are: training to make leather goods and footwear through the Central Footwear Training Institute at a cost of Rs. 56.70 lakhs, training 1,000 SHG members in information technology at a cost of Rs. 50 lakhs, training 450 members in waste plastic management and recycling through the Central Institute of Plastics Engineering and Technology at a cost of Rs. 30 lakhs and advanced training for 360 women in fashion designing through the National Institute of Fashion Technology at a cost of Rs. 21.36 lakhs. She also launched a special training programme for artisan SHGs involved in traditional handicrafts at a cost of Rs. 10.20 lakhs and training in lathe operations for 1,000 women in coordination with the Confederation of Indian Industry. Training would be imparted to members in the age group of 18-35 in computers and other services at a cost of Rs. 2 crores. An amount of Rs. 1.33 crores has been earmarked for training members of the Irula tribe to produce and market herbal goods.

Ms. Jayalalithaa also inaugurated a Rs. 2.53 crores project, under which SHGs would manufacture micro-compressed roofing tiles for the houses of tsunami victims. She declared open buildings for training and marketing centres, constructed at a cost of Rs. 95 lakhs. She laid the foundation stone for an infrastructure facility, to be built at a cost of Rs. 3 crores, for packing products manufactured by SHGs and also for creating community assets for the SHG movement at a cost of Rs. 3.45 crores.

SHGs had grown into a massive social movement. There were 35.42 lakh members under 2.11 lakh SHGs and their savings were over Rs. 754.39 crores, Ms. Jayalalithaa said. She distributed awards to the best SHGs and the panchayat level SHG federations.

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