New Delhi, Mar 10 :Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said that in the last 9 years, the country has moved with a vision of women-led development and India has taken these efforts to the global stage as it is figuring prominently in the G-20 meeting presided over by India.
The Prime Minister underlined the Nari Shakti’s strengths of determination, will power, imagination, ability to work for goals and extreme hard work as reflection of ‘Matru Shakti’.
“These qualities are playing a major role in increasing the speed and scale of India in this century” Modi said while addressing a Post Budget Webinar on the subject of “Economic Empowerment of Women”.
Talking about the Provision fo women in the Budget, he said that “this year’s budget will give a new momentum to the efforts of women-led development”.
“The country has seen this year’s Budget as an auspicious beginning for achieving the target of Vikasit Bharat by 2047” he added.
The Prime Minister said that today, the results of efforts for women empowerment are visible and we are feeling a revolutionary change in the social life of the country.
He said that that number of women compared to men is increasing, and the number of girls studying up to high school and beyond has tripled in the last 9-10 years… adding the Girls’ enrolment in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths is at 43 percent today, more than countries like America, UK and Germany.
“In fields like medical, sports, business or politics, not only the participation of women has grown but they are leading from the front” he said.
The Prime Minister touched upon the fact that 70 percent Mudra loan beneficiaries are women and added that women benefit from schemes for promotion of collateral free loans under SVANidhi and promotion schemes in animal husbandry, fisheries, village industries, FPOs and sports.
He mentioned Mahila Samman Saving Certificate Scheme where women are to get 7.5 percent interest. “80 thousand crore rupees for PM Awas Yojna is also a step in the direction of women empowerment as most of the 3 crore houses are in the name of women” Modi said.
The Prime Minister informed about the announcement for the support to the Self Help Groups for creating new unicorns among SHGs.
The Prime Minister illustrated the strength of the country’s vision for women empowerment with changing scenarios.
“Today 1 out of 5 non-farm businesses is run by a woman. More than 7 crore women have joined Self Help Groups in the last 9 years,… adding that Their value creation can be understood by their capital requirement as these Self Help Groups have taken loans worth 6.25 lakh crore” Modi said.
The Prime Minister dwelled on the transformation in the cooperative sector and role of women in the sector.
“More than 2 lakh multi-purpose cooperatives, dairy cooperatives and fisheries cooperatives are to be formed in the coming years. A target has been set to connect 1 crore farmers with natural farming. Women farmers and producer groups can play a big role in this,” the Prime Minister said.
Modi elaborated on the role of women self help groups in promotion of Shree Anna. He said more than 1 crore tribal women with traditional experience in Shree Anna are part of these Self Help groups.
Stressing the need for skill development, the Prime Minister said the Vishwakarma Scheme brought in this Budget will play a major role and will act as a bridge and its opportunities need to be leveraged for women empowerment.
“Similarly, GeM and e-commerce are becoming ways of expanding women’s business opportunities, there is a need to prioritize new technologies in the training that is being given to the self-help groups” he said.
