KHAMMAM: In a bid to create income generation opportunities for women the Panchayat Raj and Rural Development Minister Errabelli Dayakar Rao directed the officials to identify the needs of the villages and design programmes accordingly.
The minister held a review meeting with Society for Elimination of Rural Poverty (SERP) officials on Thursday and he urged the officials to created awareness among Self Help Groups (SHG) about the insuarance cover. During the event, he also launched services of Loan Suraksha Scheme under Stree Nidhi , a credit co-operative foundation of the department of rural development.
The minister said that SERP should identify different service sectors locally in the villages and create income generation programmes for women. He also said that SERP should train enthusiastic women who can produce vegetables through organic farming.
“Women should be encouraged to turn into entrepreneurs, they should be able to export agricultural produce like turmeric and chillies,” he stated. Further, he instructed the officials to identify the inactive Self Help Groups (SHG) and to make them active.
Talking about the newly launched Loan Suraksha, Rao said “Under Loan Suraksha, the members of SHGs who availed loans will be covered to the tune of the amount that they took from the financial institutions. In addition, an immediate assistance of `5,000 would be provided as funeral/cremation expenses to the family of the insured SHG member.