Society for Elimination of Poverty (SERP) consultant B.Vijayabharathi has underscored the need for training rural youth and enhancing their skills to help them get gainful employment.
What started as a thrift and credit initiative in a small way in the 1990s matured into a massive Self-Help Group (SHG) movement in the State, accounting for more than half of the SHGs in the country thanks to women-friendly visionary Chief Minister N.Chandrababu Naidu, she said.
A consultant to the World Bank and the United Nations Development Programme, Ms.Vijayabharathi kept the audience spellbound narrating the social transformation witnessed in Orvakallu through the SHG movement, which got bolstered by the women members committed to empowerment through viable socio-economic activities.
Office inaugurated
She was speaking at the inauguration of the District Rural Development Agency and SHG district federation office, built at a cost of ₹80 lakh here, to hold training programmes for SHG members in the district.
Ms. Vijayabharathi, who had motivated rural women to form thrift and credit societies leading to their economic empowerment in neighbouring Kurnool district, shared her experiences on how the SHG movement brought about a social change in her Orvakallu village and other remote villages across the State with women in the forefront of the fight against social evils like child labour, child marriage, liquor menace etc., and organising themselves to become an empowered lot.
The Chief Minister was very particular about ensuring a minimum monthly income of ₹10,000 for each SHG member through viable economic activities, said Collector V.Vinay Chand.
TDP MLA from Ongole D.Janardhana Rao said the State government was committed to empowering women through a network of Sadhikara Mitras.
Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana (DDU-GKY) kits were distributed to trainees on the occasion.