Bhubaneswar 15/3( pratyusha news ):
NABARD Odisha RO, Bhubaneswar celebrated the Intermational Women’s Day on 15 March, 2023. Theevent was organised with the theme Embrace Equity’ at Convention Centre, Hotel Mayfair Bhubaneswar andwas graced by Chief Guest Smt Sujata R.Karthikeyan, IAS, Commissioner-Cum-Secretary, Department ofMission Shakti Bhubaneswar, Smt. Namrita Chahal, Chairperson, The FICCI Ladies Organisation (FLO),Bhubaneshwar, Prof.Dr. Nibedita Pani, Director, PGIMER & Capital Hospital, Bhubaneswar and GoutamPatra, Convenor SLBC, Bhubaneswar.
During the event, 100 women micro-entrepreneurs participated from21 districts who transformed themselves into ‘Change Agents’ and contributed for the overall development ofthe Society of whom 21 participants including o6 lady bank officers having done outstanding work in the fieldof micro enterprise development and livelihood promotion were felicitated.Shri C. Udayabhaskar, Chief General Manager, NABARD Odisha RO while highlighting the relevance ofInternational Women’s Day, shared in detail various support schemes of NABARD for empowerment of ruralwomen through MEDPs, LEDPs, SHGs, JLGs, FPOs, OFPOs, Wadi, watershed, financial and digital literacycamps, sanitary literacy campaign, save water campaign etc. He stressed on the need to triple the dosage ofcredit to women entrepreneurs/ farmers etc. so that they can take up various remunerative livelihoodactivities for doubling their family income. He also stressed to now draw roadmap to graduate SHG membersinto micro entrepreneurs. He requested banks to now consider extending credit to SHGs through term loansmode.Smt Sujata R. Karthikeyan, IAS, Commissioner-Cum-Secretary, Department of Mission Shakti, Governmentof Ocdisha, Bhubaneswar during her speech highlighted intervention of Govt. of Odisha in promotion andempowerment of SHGs. She has also spoke about Gender inequality / disparity and shared the lateststatistics. She has highlighted that the Mission Shakti is socially emancipating through lending of Rs.50000cr loan by 2025 to boost the livelihood activities of rural women. She has also lauded NABARD’s role andinitiatives in SHGs pronmotion and livelihood generation.Smt. Namita Chahal, Chairperson, The FICCI Ladies Organisation (FLO), Bhubaneslhwar has stressed uponcurrent status of branding and marketing of SHG products and 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 overalldevelopment of women.Prof. Dr. Nibedita Pani, Director, PGIMER & Capital Hospital, Bhubaneswar stressed upon women health,nutrition, maternal mortality, disparity in wages and engage in unpaid activities. She has emphasized inOverall 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 laudedthe NABARD intervention in overall improvement of SHGs. However, he assured more efforts will beinitiated by the banks to enhance the loan ticket size up to Rs.4.0o lakh per SHG.The SHG micro-entrepreneurs then shared their experiences and expressed their gratitude regarding thesupport received from NABARD. A documentary video prepared on success of graduation of SHGs into smallmicro-enterprises was also released during the occasion.
