Southern States - Andhra Pradesh   

Sri Lankan Minister interacts with women's groups

By Our Staff Reporter

KURNOOL July 15. The Sri Lankan Minister for Rural Economy, Bandula Gunavardhane, interacted with women groups at Orvakal in Kurnool district on Tuesday.

Addressing a meeting at the Social Mobilisation training Centre, he said Sri Lanka had planned to start poverty alleviation programme through mobilisation of women similar to the AP experiment here.

Mr. Gunavardhane said the Sri Lankan Government was planning to adopt the women-centred model for development. He said over 50 per cent of the population lived below the poverty line and the conditions and challenges there were similar to those in India.

Leaders of women's groups explained to the visitors the achievements made by them and the challenges they encountered in initial stages. They said poverty could be banished through thrift movement.

Balanagamma from Uyyalawada told the Minister that her husband used to work as bonded labourer before she joined the thrift movement. Now, he became the owner of a piece of land.

The director of SMELC, Vijayabharathi, said volunteers of Velugu conducted in the most pragmatic way the survey to identify poverty. Dependence on crowbar and shovel for livelihood was considered as the bottom line while those owning plough placed above them. Owners of two-wheelers and tractors were considered the top layer families.

Later, the Collector, Ajay Jain, explained to the Minister the structure and approach of Velugu programme in the district. The Regional Project Director, Sandhyarani, the Project Director, Velugu, Venkatarami Reddy and others were present.

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