The Hindu : National : Lending: Renuka for women-friendly steps

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Lending: Renuka for women-friendly steps

Special Correspondent

Growth of service sector brought them new opportunities

NEW DELHI: Minister of State for Women and Child Development (Independent charge) Renuka Chowdhury has called upon the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) countries to adopt a gender friendly lending system as economic empowerment of the women is vital for the overall development of the region.

Women’s access to economic resources enhance productivity not only of a particular household, but also provides better opportunities for education, health and social development, she said while inaugurating the SAARC Conference on Micro-Financing and Women Economic Empowerment here on Friday.

Economic empowerment

Ms. Chowdhury said that rural women of India had shown that if given opportunities and access to income generating resources they can change the face of society. Underlining the importance of the economic empowerment of the women, she said integration of the region’s trade, investment and financial ties had altered the economic and social role of women.

Gender-friendly system

The continued growth of the service sector has also brought new opportunities for women to improve their economic and social status. Micro-finance has become an important tool to enable women to seize these opportunities, she added.

Urging the policy makers of the region to adopt gender friendly lending system, she said that women had emerged as the most credible borrower.

Micro-finance schemes have in many instances, demonstrated that the poor women are bankable and a valuable source for saving mobilization but the benefits and potential of micro-finance programmes for women have not been uniformly realized in the countries of the region.

She stressed that a diverse Micro-finance sector should be developed for women.

Organized by the Rashtriya Mahila Kosh under the aegis of Ministry of Women and Child Development, the conference has on its agenda the issue of micro financing to the women in the region and diverse models of funding agencies for the self-help groups of women. It is being attended by Government representatives, Micro-finance Institution, NGOs from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

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