BHUBANESWAR: The state government has set a target to provide business worth Rs 10,000 crore to self help groups (SHGs) and set up 500 Mission Shakti bazaars across the state in the next five years.
Announcing this at a media conference here on Monday, Minister of State for Mission Shakti, Basanti Hembram and secretary of the department Sujata Kartikeyan said that Mission Shakti has transformed the lives of more than 70 lakh women by organising them into more than six lakh SHGs and empowering them through income-generating activities.
Stating that government has approved establishment of industrial parks for SHG entrepreneurs in each district, Kartikeyan said Rs 150 crore has been provided in the 2023-24 budget for the same. She said that to transform SHGs to small and medium-scale entrepreneurs, training programmes in key areas such as agricultural processing, beauty, digital and business management, fashion designing and cafe and food businesses are being conducted at block levels with a budgetary provision of Rs 70 crore.
Besides, revolving funds of Rs 1 crore and Rs 50 lakh each has been provided for 30 district-level federations (DLFs) and 338 block-level federation of Mission Shakti. She said financial support has been provisioned for meeting fees and and fixed travelling allowances for the executive committee (EC) members of the gram panchayat level federations (GPLFs) and BLFs. A budgetary provision of Rs 266.57 crore has been made for all these facilities, she said.
Construction of Mission Shakti house in each gram panchayats and wards, Mission Shakti bhawans at blocks and districts across the state has been taken up to facilitate regular meetings and trainings of SHGs, she added.