By The Hindu Bureau
Copyright thehindu
The Kudumbashree’s goal is to transform Kerala into a State that has income levels comparable to middle-income countries, Minister for Local Self-government M.B. Rajesh has said.
Speaking at the inauguration of a three-day national workshop on ‘Rural enterprise incubators’ organised by the Kudumbashree and the National Rural Livelihoods Mission here on Wednesday, the Minister said Kudumbashree had contributed to empowerment of women financially, politically, and culturally. Now, the focus had shifted from entrepreneurship development to generating more jobs and income. With this end in mind, it had launched a new programme for generating wage-based employment among women.
The Minister said the State was also aiming at enhancing women’s labour force participation from 20% to 50%. “This would alter the economic landscape of our society,” he said.
As part of the Vijnana Keralam programme, the Kudumbashree had succeeded in generating employment for one lakh women, he said.
He also spoke about diversification and modernisation of Kudumbashree activities to meet new challenges. A technology conclave in Kochi saw 900 groups being equipped with modern technology. A hundred technologies had been acquired from leading research organisations across the country, the Minister said.
The imprint of Kudumbashree could be seen in each flagship programme of the State government. It had played an instrumental role in pulling out of poverty 95% of the 64,006 families identified as extremely poor in the State, he said.
He expressed hope that the deliberations at the workshop would help the Kudumbashree in the area of enterprise incubation.
Shailesh Kumar Singh, Secretary, Ministry of Rural Development, said that as part of ensuring sustainable livelihoods for rural entrepreneurs, a strong and expansive network with support provided at various stages such as production to marketing could be created.
Rajeshwari S.M., Director, Ministry of Rural Development, called for creating an environment for growth of enterprises selected as part of the incubation programme.
Bidyut C. Deka, Vice Chancellor, Assam Agriculture University; Kudumbashree Executive Director H. Dineshan; and Kudumbashree chief operating officer Naveen C. spoke.
Panel discussions were held on six topics as part of the workshop on the first day.
