Women to be empowered to run public transport

The nation's remote villages will soon become easily accessible, thanks to the women's Self Help Group (SHG)s which will provide transport services in these areas.  The Centre is planning to provide interest free loans to women's SHGs so that they can buy vehicles and hire drivers who will ply the vehicles- that will be used as public transport-  in remote villages that are not connected to the main town by any such service. This service will also enable small farmers to conveniently carry their produce to the markets. This plan has its roots in a study conducted by the rural development ministry in Bilaspur in Chhattisgarh. The scheme is part of the ongoing National Rural Livelihood Mission and is expected to be launched on Independence Day. The interest free loans will enable the SHGs to buy 6-8 vehicles to service an entire administrative block. A rural development ministry official said that the economic viability of the business was taken into account and a study found that the women will stand to gain if they were offered interest free loans. This will certainly give a boost to the women's SHGs which form the core of the flagship self-employment programme of the rural development ministry - NRLM that aims to cover seven crore rural poor households across 6,000 blocks within 10 years. This progressive scheme is slated to be launched in 250 backward blocks across states like Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, UP and Odisha among others.