International Women’s Day: NABARD Odisha RO, Bhubaneswar celebrated the International Women’s Day on 15thMarch, 2023. The event was organised with the theme ‘Embrace Equity’ at Convention Centre, Hotel Mayfair Bhubaneswar and was graced by Chief Guest Smt Sujata R.Karthikeyan, IAS, Commissioner-Cum-Secretary, Department of Mission Shakti Bhubaneswar, Smt. Namrita Chahal, Chairperson, The FICCI Ladies Organisation (FLO), Bhubaneshwar, Prof.Dr.NibeditaPani, Director, PGIMER & Capital Hospital, Bhubaneswar and Goutam Patra, Convenor SLBC, Bhubaneswar.
During the event,100 women micro-entrepreneurs participated from 21 districts who transformed themselves into ‘Change Agents’and contributed for the overall development of the Society of whom21 participants including 06 lady bank officers having done outstanding work in the field of micro enterprise development and livelihood promotion were felicitated.
Shri C.Udayabhaskar, Chief General Manager, NABARD Odisha ROwhile highlighting the relevance of International Women’s Day, shared in detail various support schemes of NABARD for empowerment of rural women through MEDPs, LEDPs, SHGs, JLGs, FPOs, OFPOs, Wadi, watershed, financial and digital literacy camps, sanitary literacy campaign, save water campaign etc.He stressed on the need to triple the dosage of credit to women entrepreneurs/ farmers etc. so that they can take up various remunerative livelihood activities for doubling their family income. He also stressed to now draw roadmap to graduate SHG members into micro entrepreneurs. He requested banks to now consider extending credit to SHGs through term loans mode.
Smt Sujata R.Karthikeyan, IAS, Commissioner-Cum-Secretary, Department of Mission Shakti, Government of Odisha, Bhubaneswar during her speech highlighted intervention of Govt. of Odisha in promotion and empowerment of SHGs. She has also spoke about Gender inequality / disparity and shared the latest statistics. She has highlighted that the Mission Shakti is socially emancipating through lending of Rs.50000 cr loan by 2025 to boost the livelihood activities of rural women. She has also lauded NABARD’s role and initiatives in SHGs promotion and livelihood generation.
Smt. NamritaChahal, Chairperson, The FICCI Ladies Organisation (FLO), Bhubaneshwar has stressed upon current status of branding and marketing of SHG productsand exploration of various routes for marketingopportunities for better returns. She also emphasised that the Society at large should always be concerned & sensitive towards the needs, requirements of women and should come forward to support the overall development of women.
Prof.Dr.NibeditaPani, Director, PGIMER & Capital Hospital, Bhubaneswar stressed upon women health, nutrition, maternal mortality, disparity in wages and engage in unpaid activities. She has emphasized in overall development of SHG women through taking care of health, sanitation and access to facilities.
Shri Goutam Patra, Convenor SLBC has praised the Bankers for actively lending to the SHGs and also lauded the NABARD intervention in overall improvement of SHGs. However, he assured more efforts will be initiated by the banks to enhance the loan ticket size up to Rs.4.00 lakh per SHG.
The SHG micro-entrepreneurs then shared their experiences and expressed their gratitude regarding the support received from NABARD. A documentary video prepared on success of graduation of SHGs into small micro-enterprises wasalso released during the occasion.
