NCW to launch dairy farming training programme for women

In a bid to make rural women financially independent, the National Commission for Women is launching a training programme in dairy farming to make them aware of scientific and practical methods, including in marketing, and earn substantially more.

The country-wide training and capacity building programme is done in collaboration with agricultural universities to identify and train women associated with dairy farming and allied activities in different aspects such as value addition, quality enhancement, packaging and marketing of dairy products among others.

The first such programme 'Value Added Dairy Products' for women Self Help Groups was launched at Lala Lajpat Rai University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences in Haryana's Hisar in association with Haryana State Rural Livelihood Mission.

NCW Chairperson Rekha said financial independence is key to women empowerment. "Women in rural India are involved in every part of dairy farming yet they have been unable to attain financial independence. This project aims to empower women and help them achieve financial independence by training them in quality enhancement of dairy products, its value addition, packaging and increasing the shelf life and marketing of their products," she said.

The NCW said it has been working to help women reach their full potential and contribute towards building a sustainable economy and these programmes are part of realising this goal. It said it strongly believes that the economy cannot succeed with half its population being held back from performing their best.

As part of the programme, the NCW aims to help women farmers and Self Help Groups through scientific training and a series of practical ideas to effectively conduct extension activities in the dairy farming sector.

It will provide training to women for enhancing their business and encouraging them towards entrepreneurship. NCW will also select trainers who will further train women entrepreneurs, women-run milk-cooperative societies, women self help groups etc," the NCW said.

The aim is to "create a sustainable and replicable district level model in the dairy sector which can be further adopted in the dairy farming regions of the country. The aim of the project is to harness the immense potential in villages in creating and marketing dairy products and empowering women along the process to achieve financial independence", the NCW said.

Last week, the NCW had launched a programme for girl students in colleges across the country aimed at capacity building and personality development so that they could confidently face the job market. The programme was aimed at giving training to degree and post graduate students on interpersonal skills, time management skills, documentation of critical ideas, identifying career opportunities, building resume and preventing and handling cybercrimes among others.

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