Vijayawada: The state government’s decision to release Rs 6,600 crore towards DWCRA self-help groups has come as a big shock to opposition YSRC, as the government has made the move to counter YSRC promises in the recently-concluded plenary.
With this, the TD government has sent a message to the YSRC that it is far ahead in implementing promises and in winning the confidence of women voters across the state.
The state government’s programmes — Velugu and SERP — are aimed at mobilisation, organisation and economic empowerment of women in the rural areas.
These efforts of the TD have created lakhs of grassroots institutions of empowered women, popularly known as DWCRA groups that contributed to economic empowerment and poverty alleviation through access to credit, knowledge, skills, value addition, market linkages, etc.
Based on the success of Velugu programme in the rural areas, a Mission for Elimination of Poverty in Municipal Areas (MEPMA) was established with the objective of eliminating poverty in the urban areas and creating slum-free municipalities.
In a major policy initiative, the government has recently entrusted the management responsibility for sand mining in the state to the SHGs, with substantial assured revenue flow to the groups.
A GO, issued by the Finance (FR&RM) department on May 30, 2015, stated that the poverty elimination efforts in the state during the past decade had been fragmented and were poorly integrated by virtue of being located across several departments and agencies. The YSRC think-tank has started a new exercise to woo women voters.
