The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Women SHGs have vital role in country's growth: Union Minister

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, May 02, 2007
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Women SHGs have vital role in country's growth: Union Minister

Special Correspondent

"Providing education to women is real empowerment"

— Photo: D.Gopalakrishnan

HANDING OVER CERTIFICATE: Union Minister of State for Textiles E.V.K.S. Elangovan and Union Minister of State for Human Resources Development D. Purandereswari (right) distributing the certificate to a beneficiary of NAESEY's free rural industrial training programme at a function in Ranipet on Tuesday.

RANIPET: Women self-help groups (SHGs) now have a leading role to play in the economic growth of the country as against the past when their role was considered important only in social and rural development, according to D. Purandereswari, Union Minister of State for Human Resources Development.

She was speaking at a function on Tuesday organised here by the New Era Association of Educated Self-Employed Youth (NAESEY) to distribute certificates to about 7,000 trainees of the Free Rural Industrial Training Programme conducted by NAESEY at its centres.

Women's education

Ms. Purandereswari said that women's empowerment did not stop with bringing women to the forefront in society and giving reservation in the local bodies, but in empowering them in education.

Though women's reservation in the local bodies has crossed 50 per cent in some States, the conditions of women in society have not changed.

Dowry deaths and domestic atrocities against women still persist in society. The only answer to this lies in providing education to women. "Only when she is educated will she stand up to her rights," the Minister said.

Ms. Purandereswari said the Centre has launched the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme not only to provide employment to the rural people but also to bring about rural development. "We can prevent migration of rural people to urban areas only by ensuring rural development," she said.

Union Minister of State for Textiles E.V.K.S. Elangovan said India's strength lay in its unity in diversity. Youth below the age of 30 years constitute 60 per cent of the population, and when they grow up, India's strength will become manifold. He said the present employment scenario, where the youth get jobs with a monthly salary of Rs.50,000 and the facility with which they build houses and buy cars within a couple of years of getting a job augurs well for the economic growth of the country.

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