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A youth's gesture of a handshake to wish him on his birthday impressed Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday. Modi said he saw it as a sign of confidence and self-reliance, core for a dignified life.
For India to be “swabhimani”(self-respecting), its people need to first be so, he said while launching the Swavalamban Abhiyan, a set of 11 new pro-poor initiatives of the Gujarat government, at Mahatma Mandir in Gandhinagar. These schemes were announced by the state chief minister during the legislative Assembly’s budget session in July.
While distributing computer tablets to students of Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs), one of the beneficiaries stretched out his hand for a handshake as Modi was about to take his seat after giving the tablet. Caught off-guard, Modi then got up and shook the boy’s hand, who wished him on his 64th birthday and left the stage.
“For me,” said the prime minister later during his address after the launch of the 11 schemes, “this is a moment of pride, that a boy from a poor family who cannot may be study beyond ITI made the PM stand up from his chair to wish him on his birthday. Look how self-reliance (after studying at the ITI) has boosted his self-esteem.”
The schemes launched on Wednesday included support to tribal women engaged in cattle rearing for milch animals and dairy equipment, financial assistance to women-run milk cooperatives for purchase of milking machine and shaft cutter, health care support for family with income less than Rs 1.2 lakh, financial support to build food grain storage facility in fields of farmers, tablet computers for ITI students enrolled for computer course, initial support for ITI pass-out for starting their own businesses, health care and housing support for construction workers and his family and setting up of employment related services through employment exchange bureau.
