‘Sanjeevini Saras-2022’, national mela kicks off

‘Anchor Bank’ will be established to facilitate women’s SHG activities- CM Basavaraja Bommai

Bengaluru, April 8: Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said, the government will establish the ‘anchor bank’ to ease the availability of financial help for women’s self-help groups.

Inaugurating the ‘Sanjeevini Saras-2022’ national mela at Basavanagudi National College Grounds on Friday evening, he said, the anchor bank will ensure the financial help within one-month duration thus enabling the SHG women entrepreneurs to commence their activities at the earliest.

In the recent budget Rs, 500 crores has been earmarked to further strengthen women’s self-help groups. This is estimated to create 4 lakh self-employment opportunities. Also, in the budget, the government has allocated Rs 47,000 crores for women’s welfare & Rs 43,000 crores for children’s welfare. The government will issue an order within a week to implement these intended programmes, he told.

Though the state stands in 4th place in the country in terms of per capita income, only 25-30% are contributing to the GSDP, and the rest 70% are working only for their livelihood. The government is taking all measures to empower those who are in the 70% group so that they also will be able to engage in economic activities which contribute to the GSDP.

Among women, only 5-10% are economically self-dependent. Despite women toiling hard in every sector, their effort is not being valued in a justifiable manner. Inclusive growth will become a reality only when women are actively involved in economic activities, he opined.

Chief Minister also mentioned that the transactions by SHGs have doubled as a result of linking them with e-commerce platforms such as Amazon, Flipkart, etc.

Dr.Ashwath Narayan, Minister for Skill Development, Entrepreneurship & Livelihood, in his introductory remarks said, the government aspires for equal distribution of resources by empowering women belonging to self-help groups.

Ministers MTB Nagaraj, S Munenakoppa, MLC A. Devegowda, MLAs Uday B.Garudachar, Ravi Subrahmanya, Actresses Lakshmi Gopalaswamy, Sonu Gowda, National Livelihood Mission Director Manjusri, ACS Selvakumar, ACS Vandita Sharma were among those who were present.

Over 300 stalls set up by SHGs from 23 states will display and sell more than 150 different products till April 18.

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