Srinagar: Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha on Wednesday urged women entrepreneurs to show right and virtuous path to “misguided” people who are “shedding innocents’ blood and indulging in senseless violence”
The LG made these remarks during the launch of ‘SAATH’, a rural women enterprise acceleration programme here at SKICC on Wednesday, an official spokesperson said. Under this initiative of the J&K Rural Livelihoods Mission (UMEED), the SHG women entrepreneurs will be provided mentoring and handholding through intensive training and capacity building workshops for up-scaling their business ventures.
5000 women will participate in entrepreneur workshops, 500 women will be provided enterprise up-scaling training and 100 women will be selected for business mentoring under SAATH initiative.
“We are witnessing steady rise of women entrepreneurs in J&K. Similarly, youth entrepreneurs are transforming society in many ways and are ensuring economic security and prosperity for others,” Sinha said, as per official spokesperson.
“They are our role models and not the ones who are shedding innocents’ blood, and indulging in senseless violence. I appeal to the women entrepreneurs to show such misguided people the right and virtuous path,” he added.
The LG, he said, also observed that the specifically tailored platform ‘SAATH’ will be a major contributor to the socio-economic upliftment of women in rural and semi-urban areas.
“Apart from making business ecologies thriving in the rural areas, the programme under Rural Livelihoods Mission, J&K will nurture existing enterprises into sustainable, high productivity ventures through skilling, mentoring, and market linkages,” Sinha said.
Terming economic independence of women as key indicator of women empowerment, the LG, as per the official spokesperson, observed that the goal of the UT Government is to make the women of J&K job creators instead of job seekers, and increase the contribution of women entrepreneurs in UT’s GDP.
He said that the LG also reiterated the government’s commitment to provide access to capital, quality mentorship for re-skilling, new-skilling and help women entrepreneurs from SHG’s reach new markets.
“We have adopted a holistic approach to develop women entrepreneurs ecosystem to connect, collaborate, invent for scaling up business and building a strong women workforce,” the LG said, as per official spokesperson.
“The UT Government is strengthening bottom-up structures for women and youth to create super-empowered individuals in Jammu Kashmir. Their aspirations are more integrated with national aspirations now than ever before. They have resources available to create smarter enterprises and shape the community around them in extraordinary ways,” he added.
According to the official spokesperson, the LG said with initiatives like Saath, Umeed, Mumkin, Hausla, Tejaswini, we are making women socially and economically independent. He said that women entrepreneurs can trigger a more dynamic economy and inclusive society.
He said that the LG highlighted that the transformation JKRLM programmes were making in the lives of rural women of Jammu and Kashmir and said that the inclusion of four lakh women in more than 48,000 self-help groups with easy access to capital have revolutionized women entrepreneurship at grassroot level.
“Women should become visible workforce now. We need to involve more women in non-farming works, besides giving focused attention to areas where they can get maximum economic freedom and business opportunities. The gap between paid and unpaid work can also be bridged through IPS strategy- Identity, Productivity and Security” Sinha said.
The LG, He said, suggested policy interventions by ensuring that the offices, schools in the districts, and blocks procure a fixed quota of goods from Self-Help Groups In order to assist the growth of the SHGs at local level. He also advised the JKRLM office bearers to focus on branding, packaging, and above all brand positioning of SHG products.
“The attractive packaging, effective brand positioning, required licenses for over-the-counter sales are some of the basic necessities to give them a competitive edge in the market. You have the most difficult task of identifying consumers to connect with your brand, but it is not impossible,” the LG said, as per official spokesperson.
“The workshop must aim to offer 360-degree training on branding and marketing. It is also important to exploit power of social media and e-commerce. The digital space can create a widely available market base for the rural women entrepreneurs,” he added.
On the occasion, the official spokesperson said that Sinha also interacted with the SHG entrepreneurs of JKRLM and wished them success in their enterprising journey. The logo of SAATH was also unveiled by the Lt Governor.
The gathering was also addressed by LG’s Advisor Baseer Ahmad Khan, and J&K Chief Secretary Dr. Arun Kumar Mehta and other officers of the administration.
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