Lack of market slows down plight of women
Stree Shakti Groups demand Stree Shakti Bhavan
Though the Stree Shakti Groups concept started by the government to empower women had seen some success, the women are suffering due to lack of marketing facilities for their products.
In 2010, the Government introduced the concept in the entire State in a big way forming over 1.30 lakh Stree with over 19 lakh women as members. The groups have made transaction of over Rs 2,835 crore but lack of marketing facilities is threatening the women entrepreneurs who are ready to take bigger challenges in future.
The activities of these groups in Kodagu are encouraging as there are over 1,000 groups with 13,000 members saving about Rs six crores. The women are getting financial aid under these groups easily.
They are even making use of the facilities to produce various home made products. But when it comes to earning profits from their produce, these women have no option but to throw their hands in despair because they have no suitable space to market their products.
Sambhar powder, chilly powder, papads, pickles, bags, phenyl, soaps, detergents, woollen wear, tailored products are some of the products that the women have been producing under the banner of various Stree Shakti Groups.
Stree Shakti Bhavan
Government had taken the decision of building Stree Shakti Bhavans at taluk centres across the State. However, in Kodagu, only one Stree Shakti Bhavan has been built so far, which is at Ponnampet. The construction of the bhavan is under progress at Somwarpet while the Bhavan has not got approval at Virajpet.
Due to this, the members are widely dependent on the exhibitions organised by Women and Child Welfare Department, District Administration and Zilla Panchayat for selling their products. The exhibitions are held once in a while for three to four days and over the span of the exhibition how much products can these women sell is a big question.
“For various reasons we cannot do door-to-door sales. Hence most of the women spend their time waiting for the next exhibition to be organised,” says a member who says that if markets cannot be set up then Government should ask various departments to purchase the products like phenyl, detergents etc for office use.
If at all the government provides proper marketing facilities then these women can bring about social revolution for sure.
