Taking the “Pedarikam Pai Gelupu” (victory over poverty) campaign forward, the Andhra Pradesh government will flag off “Women Empowerment Tour (Mahila Sadhikaratha Yatra)” from October 2, highlighting the success of women empowerment programs through DWCRA women in the State.
On the other hand, the AP government has set itself a target of 100 per cent literacy among 80 lakh SHG groups by 2019 with a corpus fund of Rs.14,000 crore. “Every household that has an income of less than Rs. 5,000 should be increased to at least Rs.10,000 per family,” Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu said, in a review meeting with SERP officials today in Vijayawada.
Currently, 46 per cent of DWCRA women in the State are literates. However, to make them competent and build their capacities, the government will hold literacy and computer literacy programs with a standard exam, based on their education levels. The Chief Minister suggested that this literacy program be taken up under Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). “Eventually, we need to create an e-literate and an entrepreneur from every household,” the Chief Minister said.
Meanwhile, SERP CEO Solomon Arokiaraj informed the Chief Minister that the government has planned a series of programs for DWCRA women such as creating food enterprises, Anna Sanjivani, DWCRA bazaars, city livelihood centres, lamb-rearing, manage sanitation contracts, creation of decentralised textile parks and poultry/sea-food and meat-processing centres to create employment for DWCRA women.
Under livestock management, DWCRA women will be engaged to identify a common place in the village where they will be trained to analyze fodder for livestock, milk production and work with veterinary doctors. “They can feed fodder, carry out milking of animals and can be paid for the services at the common centre. The same can be carried out for fisheries as well,” the Chief Minister explained.
Under food enterprises, DWCRA women will be trained to work by networking with chefs and culinary experts, culinary institutions in order to ensure that local cuisines, national and global cuisines will be created. “Follow all the quality and regulatory norms in order to standardise quality and have brand credibility,” the Chief Minister said, adding that these food enterprises should be branded in a manner so that it appeals to local as well as global audience.
Similarly, for City Livelihood Centres, DWCRA groups will identify service providers such as plumbers, carpenters, cooks and house-keeping personnel who will be brought under a single umbrella of services for urban centres/villages in the State. “This should be taken in a service-based approach rather than being mere resource providers,” the Chief Minister said. For this, DWCRA women will be trained to identify the needs of panchayats and provide necessary services.
Under DWCRA Bazaars, the turnover during Pushkaralu stood at Rs. 3.5 crore from the bazaars. The Chief Minister was informed that a National DWCRA fair will be held on Vizag fromOctober 15th-24th.
The Chief Minister, on the other hand, suggested creating a Common Marketplace for DWCRA women to sell their products where young women can be given managerial work of the marketplace where DWCRA women can sell their products while young women could earn salary through their work.
This way, the Chief Minister said, the government can directly involve online players such as Flipkart, Amazon, e-Bay and others so that DWCRA women can directly sell their products online. “Eventually, we should be able to create our own logistics chain with DWCRA women so that we can have end-to-end services from manufacturing of products to delivery of products,” the Chief Minister said.
In Villages and Urban Centres, the Chief Minister suggested that DWCRA women could also be trained in hospitality services so that services such as ‘Home Stay’ or ‘paying-guest facility in villages’ could be provided. To improve the capacity and increase economic activity of DWCRA groups in order to keep them motivated, the Chief Minister suggested that training workshops and mentoring programs be held with prominent local industrialists.
Minister K. Mrunalini, Joint Secretary to CM Pradhyumna and SERP officials were present. (NSS)