Nitish vows to make women economically self-reliant

Patna: CM Nitish Kumar on Sunday launched a massive outreach drive to empower women across Bihar while also initiating the process for submission of applications under the CM Mahila Rojgar Yojana (CMMRY). The CM flagged off 250 specially designed vehicles, which will disseminate information about the scheme and the govt’s initiatives over the past 20 years for women’s economic empowerment, self-reliance and inclusion in govt and police jobs.The vehicles, equipped with video screens, will travel to designated points selected by Jeevika didis associated with self-help groups (SHGs) in both rural and urban areas over the next 20 days. At the function, held at the Sankalp auditorium at his official residence, the CM also launched an online portal for women in urban areas to submit their applications and released the manual application forms.Speaking on the occasion, the CM said, “Efforts are on to make women self-reliant and also promote economic activities by them for the betterment of their families, households, their education and healthcare.” He recalled past initiatives, including 50% reservation of single seats for women in panchayati raj institutions and urban local bodies, promotion of SHG formation with World Bank support resulting in 11 lakh SHGs with 1.40 crore women in rural areas, and 37,000 SHGs with 3.85 lakh women in urban areas. He also referred to the 35% reservation for women in the state police since 2013 and in all govt jobs from 2016, as well as CM Kanya Utthan Yojana, CM Mahila Udyami Yojana and provision of cycles and school uniforms for girl students.Under the CMMRY, a woman from every household will receive the first installment of Rs 10,000 to start a business activity of her choice. Patna DM Tyagrajan S M said, “The first installment of financial assistance worth Rs 10,000 would be transferred into the accounts of women concerned in September itself.” The remaining financial assistance, up to Rs 2 lakh, will be provided after a six-month assessment of the business activity.The CM added that the CMMRY aims to develop one woman entrepreneur in every family and make women self-reliant. Senior officials, along with 250 Jeevika didis from Patna district, attended the event. Deputy CMs Samrat Chaudhary and Vijay Kumar Sinha, ministers Vijay Kumar Choudhary and Shrawan Kumar and senior bureaucrats including the CM’s principal secretary Deepak Kumar, chief secretary Pratyaya Amrit, development commissioner S Siddharth, and secretaries of rural and urban development departments were also present.