The Tamil Nadu government has proposed to distribute loans to the tune of ₹225 crore to women Self Help Groups (SHGs) in the district during this financial year to help them start and diversify self enterprises, Collector S. Natarajan said.
Addressing the ‘orientation training programme for financial inclusion and financial literacy’, organised by the Tamil Nadu Corporation for Women Development at the Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK) here on Friday, he said the loans would be given to the SHGs under various financial linkage schemes.
He said 6,892 SHGs were functioning in the district with a total membership of about 86,000 women and they were engaged in fisheries related business, vegetable gardens, tailoring, palm leaf products and household articles.
The government was giving loans to help the groups to further expand and diversity their activities, he said.
The Magalir Thittam staff should address the women SHGs and create awareness about the loans, while bankers should strive to achieve the target 100%.
The bankers should also ensure that the loan amounts reached the eligible and viable SHGs, the Collector added.
Pointing that the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) has said that 13% of marriages held in the district constituted child marriages during 2015-16, Mr. Natarajan exhorted the SHGs to create awareness about the need to abolish child marriages in all their meetings. “Abolition of child marriages should be part of the agenda in all your meetings,” he told the SHGs.
The Collector, who had directed the Social Welfare department to conduct a survey to ascertain facts about child marriages and follow up action being taken after stopping child marriages, said members of women SHGs would be involved in the survey.
While conducting the survey, the members would interact with women and explain as to why they should not marry off their wards when they were below 18 years, he said.
The angwanwadi workers would also be involved in the exercise, he said adding they have been asked to observe Village Health Sanitation (VHS) day during the first week of every month to assess the nutritious levels of children and check the health parameters of pregnant women.
Magalir Thittam and Bank officials were present on the occasion.
