The Hindu : Front Page : Making SHGs computer literate

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Nov 04, 2005

Front Page

Front Page

Making SHGs computer literate

V.S. Palaniappan

Tie-up with educational institutions; 100 members from Coimbatore to be trained

Coimbatore: If you think women self-help groups are only making eatables, garments and decorative articles, you are mistaken.

Thanks to their enterprising skills, they have already diversified into newer ventures like manufacture of stabilisers and generation of manure from waste.

Software parks

Going a step further, keeping in mind the much-awaited entry of software parks, the official machinery has prepared a road map for equipping them with computer skills to make them employable.

They can also become entrepreneurs and run computer centres in smaller towns, achieving the objective of emancipation of rural and semi-literate women through economic self-reliance, says P. Jeyabalakrishnan, Project Officer of District Rural Development Agency (DRDA).

The State Government planned to provide computer education to 1,000 women SHG members across the State of which 100 would be from Coimbatore in the first phase, Minister for Backward Classes, S.M. Velusamy, said while inaugurating the first training capsule at Park College of Technology at Kaniyur.

Giving shape

To give shape to this ambitious plan, the administration has entered into a working relationship with more educational institutions like the Krishna College of Engineering, Kumaraguru College of Technology and the Coimbatore Institute of Management and Technology at Narasipuram.

Training capsule

They would train 75 women through a 12-day training capsule on computer programmes like MS Word, tally accounting software, multimedia for designing, networking and internet.

Repayment prompt

The Minister pointed out that Maharashtra, with the highest population of 10 crores, had only 35,000 self-help groups whereas Tamil Nadu had one lakh Self-Help Groups helping 35 lakh women. In the 19 Panchayat unions in Coimbatore district, there were 13,000 Self-Help Groups with nearly two lakh women.

Financial assistance

Among the co-operative banks in the country, it was the co-operative banks in Tamil Nadu that disbursed the highest financial assistance i.e., Rs. 7.5 crores in the form of subsidy. With women SHGs proving to be prompt re-payers, co-operative banks also felt comfortable in helping them.

Own ventures

He hoped that when their training was over, they would get help from co-operative institutions to start own ventures.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Front Page