Bhubaneswar : Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI), under its flagship initiative Mission Swavalamban, in partnership with Usha International Limited (UIL) has launched the third phase of setting up of 750 Swavalamban Silai Schools across 20 districts of 10 states viz. Odisha, North East (Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Sikkim and Tripura), West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh with an objective to empower women by making them independent while pursuing entrepreneurship culture and evolve as Homepreneurs. The third phase of the program has been flagged off from Kendrapara district in Odisha.
The virtual launch of third phase of the program was inaugurated by Shri Amar Patnaik, Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha in presence of Shri Sivasubramanian Ramann, Chairman and Managing Director, SIDBI and Shri Dinesh Chhabra, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, UIL among other dignitaries.
On this occasion Shri Sivasubramanian Ramann, Chairman and Managing Director, SIDBI said, “As we celebrated 75th year of independence with the theme of ‘AtmaNirbhar Villages for Atmanirbhar Bharat’ by promoting women entrepreneurship, artisans and large-scale livelihood promotion, SIDBI is glad to announce that through this joint initiative so far 1,700 Swavalamban Silai Schools have been set up in 24 districts across 7 states. SIDBI aims towards reaching 15,000 such schools across India. The initiative shall give fillip to the agenda of taking the current 20% of enterprises being owned by women to at least 50% in the years to come.”
Under this program, training is provided to aspiring women entrepreneurs on various aspects of stitching along with maintenance and repairing of sewing machine by the expert trainers of UIL. The women entrepreneurs successfully completing the training program are provided sewing machine, training kit and a Swavalamban Silai School signage board. This initiative is not only making them independent and role models for their family but in turn they become master trainer and then teach average three more women which would create a ripple effect.
While inaugurating the 3rd phase, Shri Amar Patnaik, Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha congratulated SIDBI and UIL for starting this initiative of setting up Swavalamban Silai Schools across the country and appreciated the efforts of both the organisations in coming together to create a social standing and recognition of women as role models within their community by economic enablement.
-Odisha Age
