Bhubaneswar: Deputy Chief Minister Pravati Parida on Monday created a buzz with her social media post, addressing women self-help groups (SHGs) members.
“An organisation often grows under the leadership of one person. But that person cannot carry the organisation forward forever. People retire, step down, become inactive, leadership changes, new leadership takes roots, and the organisation grows again. This is a continuous process while should elicit little surprise. All the sisters of self-help groups have to join this trend. This is where their development lies,” she posted on X.
This message is being seen as an appeal by Parida, who holds the Women and Child Development portfolio, to women SHG members, who are still aligned with BJD and not coming forward to cooperate with the BJP government’s initiatives, to accept the change in guard.
This came a week after Parida informed about massive restructuring of Mission Shakti, the flagship programme of Naveen Patnaik government, by dissolving the grassroot-level leadership of the SHG network and launching a special drive to link every household with income-generating initiatives.
She had also criticized the previous BJD government for exploiting the SHG movement for electoral gains, while claiming that large sums were diverted to unregistered groups, which then escaped financial audits. She further stated that this practice will end now and SHGs will focus exclusively on empowering women. All office-bearers and leadership of such organisations will be changed to ensure transparency and inclusivity, allowing members from each family a chance to represent and participate in the economic growth of the state, she added.
