Thaindian News

By Avtar Gill
Muktsar (Punjab), Mar 12 (ANI): A large number of women in Punjab are becoming self-reliant with the help of Self-help groups (SHGs) operational under the Swarnajayanti Gram Swarozagar Yojana (SGSY), a poverty eradication scheme aimed at promoting employment opportunities launched by the Government of India.
Assistance is provided to the rural women who are eager to take up self-employing vocations under the Swarnajayanti Gram Swarozagar Yojana.
Punjab’’s Muktsar District is one such place, which today has over 330 self-help groups.
The self-help groups provide expert vocational training in works like latest designs and patterns of embroidery, knitting and making of stuffed toys.
Kuldeep Kaur, a differently-abled woman, runs one such self-help group in Muktsar district. She says that she has been a beneficiary of one such self-help group previously and today she is engaged in enabling several girls to become self-reliant.
“I learnt the same way like these girls learning now. Though I cannot walk, but I am self-dependent on myself. I do my own work and this is what I am teaching these girls how to stitch various patterns and styles of embroidery work,” said Kuldeep Kaur.
Those involved with the self help groups manage to earn a reasonable income.
“We are being taught free here. The government has given a lot of facilities in the centre,” said Suman Rani, a trainee.
Rural job schemes introduced by the Government of India, are aimed at handling the challenge of ensuring rural unemployment, through traditional handicraft industries, like textile weaving and bamboo work. (ANI)