The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : SHGs should "share their experience to perform better"

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Mar 16, 2006

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

SHGs should "share their experience to perform better"

Special Correspondent

"Panchayats should be given significant role in implementing development schemes"

CHENNAI: Frequent interaction among self-help groups to share their experience is necessary to improve their functioning, said members of SHGs at a workshop, organised by the M.S.Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) and the Hunger Project, here on Wednesday.

Women panchayat presidents and SHG members were unanimous that panchayats be given a significant role in implementing development programmes. At present, government programmes were being implemented in rural areas not through local panchayats but by non-governmental organisations.

Tsunami relief and rehabilitation works, they said, were carried out through NGOs. If funds were diverted through the local panchayats, they could have been utilised better.

K. Skandan, managing director, Tamil Nadu Corporation for Development of Women, said SHGs had a major role in taking government programmes to the grassroots.

Malan, media advisor, Hunger Project, said the aim of the project was to find a sustainable solution to hunger.

Foundation executive director M. Velayutham said millennium development goals of hunger-free society, education for all children, equal rights for women, reduction in infant mortality and pollution-free environment could be achieved at the panchayat level.

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