The Orissa government plans to start a women entrepreneurship development programme to empower and rehabilitate widows, single women, disadvantaged women and divorcees.
Under the programme, women in the age group of 25 to 50 years would be identified, trained, and supported with available skills at the Institute of Entrepreneurship Development (IED), Bhubaneswar.
The programme will be implemented by IED in association with the departments of women and child development, SC & ST development, panchayatiraj and industries department. These departments will make the required budgetary provisions for implementation of the project, sources said.
The tiny or micro enterprises which can be taken up by women include juice making, laundry work, floriculture, spice making, grocery, house keeping, teas stall, dry snacks, mobile recharging, stationary shops, milk stalls, beauty parlour, book binding, fruit binding, embroidery work, cutlery shops, plastic toy selling among others.
“The widows, divorcees and single women in the age group of 25 to 40 years are the worst sufferers if they are not engaged in any economic activity. The women entrepreneurship development programme aims to empower this section to give them a decent life”, said a senior official. Sources said, the beneficiaries will be identified through personal counseling, awareness camps and advertisement and they will be provided entrepreneurship awareness orientation training. While vocational training will be imparted to the intended beneficiaries for specific jobs, financial support will be extended in the form of tools, kits, machineries instead of cash distribution.
The progress will be monitored on a daily basis for one month after the training and efforts will be made for appropriate bank linkages for loans. The programme is expected to ensure a decent standard of living to the disadvantaged women. It will also supplement various poverty eradication schemes and reduce the burden on the government to provide food at a subsidised price. “The government has in principle approved the proposal and IED will design the training support, monitoring modules and assess the budgetary requirement”, sources added.
