Bhubaneswar: Women of Odisha have created a unique identity through the Mission Shakti program. Mission Shakti women have become a huge social capital for the state. Our aim is to make the women of our state major stakeholders in the state’s economy by creating entrepreneurs from SHGs, said Basanti Hembram, Minister of Women and Child Development and Mission Shakti.
Hembram made the statement while inaugurating the state-level training program of block trainers related to bank loans and interest repayment organized by the Mission Shakti Department for two days on May 31 and June 1 at the Convention Hall of Lok Seva Bhavan.
Informing about the approach of this training program, the Commissioner-cum-Secretary, Mission Shakti Sujatha R. Karthikeyan said, “SHGs are spontaneous leaders. They have extraordinary abilities, capabilities and powers. The SHG movement has been successful in our state because of its leadership. When these leaders are trained, they will be the main agents of women empowerment by creating wide awareness in their area”.
In this workshop, Odisha Livelihood Mission State Mission Director N. Thirumala Nayak, Departmental Joint Secretary Vinod Kumar Jena and experts attended and highlighted various aspects of the workshop.
Bishnupriya Das, President of the district level Maha Sangha of Mayurbhanj district, who recently joined the delegation of SHG leaders on the international flight from Bhubaneswar to Dubai for the first time, described her experience and experiences of her trip to Dubai.
In this state-level training program so far held in 2 phases more than 700 members of Block and District Maha Sangha from 20 districts and field staff of Mission Shakti Department have participated.
The main objective of this training program is to bring the bank loan system close to every self-help group, to ensure regular loan repayment and avail rebate on interest.
Block and District Maha Sangha leaders who will sensitize Self Help Groups and other Maha Sangha members at the block level have been imparted training at these training programs.
Apart from financial inclusion and interest repayment, the block and district leaders will sensitize all the SHG members about the various people-oriented programs of the state government.
Through this effort of the Mission Shakti Department, 1014 block and district leaders of the state will work as expert groups (resource groups) for various training and awareness programs.
In the last 8 years in the state, the amount of financial assistance given to self-help groups through banks has increased 19 times. In the financial year 2022-23, the amount of bank loans given to self-help groups has increased to Rs. 11,000 crores.
This year, through Mission Shakti, the target has been set to give loans of 15,000 crores to the SHGs of the state.
It was expressed in the training program that this expert group at the block and district level will be very helpful in training and making aware of all these at the grassroots level.
