With an eye on consolidating the women votebank before the 2024 state assembly elections, chief minister Naveen Patnaik-led Odisha government would soon begin its mission of turning the six lakh women self help groups (SHG) to small and medium enterprises (SME) over the next three years, government officials said.
According to ‘Mission Shakti’ department secretary Sujatha Karthikeyan, CM Patnaik has announced a number of initiatives to help women in Odisha build big businesses and operate at scale.
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“In recognition of women members’ efforts towards entrepreneurship, the state has increased the interest subvention benefits for women SHGs for loans from Rs. 3 lakh to Rs. 5 lakh at 0% annual interest rate since April 1 this year. This will enable SHGs in availing credit of higher value. Under the 5T mandate, the government has targeted to increase the average loan size from ₹2.85 lakh per SHG to ₹4 lakh by end of this fiscal,” said Karthikeyan at the inaugural day of the senion IAS officers conference in Bhubaneswar on Tuesday.
This year nearly ₹10,000 crore will be disbursed to more than three lakh SHGs while over the next five years, ₹50,000 crore loan is targeted to be disbursed to SHGs, Karthikeyan said.
{{/usCountry}}This year nearly ₹10,000 crore will be disbursed to more than three lakh SHGs while over the next five years, ₹50,000 crore loan is targeted to be disbursed to SHGs, Karthikeyan said.
{{/usCountry}}The increasing financial empowerment of the women SHGs comes at a time when the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is making determined bid to increase its seats in Lok Sabha and Odisha assembly. Patnaik, who has won at least three assembly elections– 2009, 2014 and 2019– solely due to women voters, has made no secret of his plans of bringing more and more women to the forefront of politics.
During the campaigning for the assembly bypoll for Dhamnagar constituency in December last year, Patnaik said Mission Shakti is the new identity of women in Odisha. “The good work of women SHGs has made me very happy. With your help, Odisha is now famous all over the country in the field of development. I fully believe that this trend will continue further with your support,” the CM said.
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During Tuesday’conference, Patnaik asked collectors to reach out to more and more people, find out their issues of concern, and use technology to sort them out in a faster, simple and hassle-free manner.
“I would like to see all our development projects are implemented in the shortest possible time and our welfare initiatives reach all the legitimate beneficiaries. Odisha is now a food surplus state contributing to the national public distribution system and the agriculture & allied sectors provide maximum employment to people in rural areas,” he said.
The next Odisha legislative assembly election is scheduled to be held in or before June 2024 to elect all 147 members of the state assembly.