CHENNAI:The Special Livelihood Scheme for Women-headed Households, announced by Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa on May 24, after assuming office for the fifth time, got under way from July 1 with as many as 6,498 beneficiaries across the State. For the current financial year, the target has been fixed to train 70,000 beneficiaries from women headed households. The selection of beneficiaries in urban areas is going on and the training would start on August 1.
Through this Rs 750 crore scheme, all families headed by women in the State would be covered within a period of five years. For the current year, Rs 100 crore has been allocated. Municipal Administration Minister S P Velumani reviewed the progress of this scheme, at a meeting held at the Secretariat on Wednesday.
As per the 2011 census, of the 185 lakh families in Tamil Nadu, 25.88 lakh families are headed by women. With a view to improve the economic status of these families, the Chief Minister has come out with the special scheme, implemented by the Tamil Nadu Women Development Corporation in rural and urban areas. Women heading a poor family or a male and female member of the family in the age group of 18 to 45 could be a beneficiary.
Under this scheme, training would be provided to engage in ready-made dresses, retail trade, beauty parlour, computer operation, construction, repairing electronic goods, making of leather goods, driving light motor vehicle, fashion jewellery and conductors in buses. Rs 10,000 to Rs 20,000 would be spent on each beneficiary for providing skill improvement training and for starting his/her own business.
During the review meeting, the Minister also looked at the progress of various schemes including Solar Powered Green Houses and MNREGA. The Minister said during the past four years, Women’s SHGs in the State had received a whopping Rs 21,304 crore as loan.