Chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy has called for constant monitoring and revamping of women’s self-help groups (SHGs) for achieving further success though the state is a leader in the SHG movement.
He was releasing a book titled, MAN IN THE HAT, a biography of Shoaib Sultan Khan, one of the pioneers of social mobilisation and participatory rural development programmes in Pakistan, written by Australian writer Noel Cossins, at a function held at the Secretariat here on Monday.
Reddy said the ‘will of the people is that they should help themselves’ was the principle that literally changed the movement and saw it reach its peak.
‘’Even after reaching this stage, continuous monitoring and fine-tuning is necessary for the movement to make further progress. By the hard work of officials, staff and stakeholders of the movement i.e. women members, the programme has been brought to this stage,’’ he explained.
“The biography of Shoaib Sultan Khan will be the guiding force to all our officers to take up welfare programmes like the Indira Kranti Patham,” he said.
Minister for women development, child welfare and IKP V Sunita Lakshma Reddy congratulated Shoaib Khan and Noel Cossins and said three pilot projects of SHG were taken up by Shoaib Khan in the districts of Mahbubnagar, Kurnool, and Anantapur when he was working for the United Nations South Asian Poverty Alleviation Programme.
In December 1982, Khan initiated the Aga Khan Rural Support Programme, making a difference to the lives of a million people in the Northern Areas and Chitral district of Pakistan. In Khan’s words, it took him 12 years at the Aga Khan Rural Support Programme to organise one million people in Pakistan but Andhra Pradesh was able to organise around 55 million people because of government’s support.
Principal secretary (rural development) R Subrahmanyam said that the book was an honour to the entire SHG movement.