Special action at the village level for gender equality and women’s protection Vemula Mandal, September 26: Velugu-DRDA Assistant Project Manager Anjaneyulu suggested that women’s self-help groups should be further strengthened and work in coordination to lead every woman towards financial self-reliance. The Vemula Mandal Mahila Samakhya executive committee meeting was held at Vemula Mandal Sri Shakti Bhavan under the chairmanship of Mandal Samakhya President Smt. Srilakshmi. Speaking on the occasion, Srilakshmi suggested that the loans received by the self-help groups and village sakhayas should be properly utilized for the specified purposes and sustainable livelihoods should be established. The members of the sakhaya should move forward towards increasing family income through the use of loans. The services of CRPs should be utilized. APM Anjaneyulu, who attended the meeting as a special invitee, said that Community Resource Persons (CRPs) are playing a key role in accelerating the activities of the Mandal Mahila Samakhya and village sakhayas. He advised to effectively utilize the services of e-Nari CRPs, FL-CRPs, IBC-CRPs, Gender CRPs, Vitthasakhi, Bima Sakhi, APO-CRPs etc. working in Vemula Mandal. He said that the progress of the respective activities should be updated from time to time and steps should be taken to ensure that the necessary services are provided to women at the village level in a timely manner. APM said that special focus on gender equality is being given to the Gender Resource Center to ensure the protection, safety and achievement of gender equality. He advised the community coordinators to select gender resource persons in every village federation and every self-help group and provide them with necessary training. Anjaneyulu suggested that every woman should take advantage of the necessary financial support and loan facilities to become an activist and entrepreneur in order to become a woman entrepreneur. He said that the opportunities available through schemes like Srinidhi, Social Capital Fund (CIF), Unnati, PMFME, PMEGP etc. should be utilized and income sources should be increased. He suggested that women’s groups should work in coordination for economic strengthening, livelihood development and social empowerment. Village federation presidents, secretaries, treasurers, community coordinators Jyoti, Jaipal, Gangaraju, Harikrishna, Nageswari and others participated in this meeting.
