According to H.R. Naik, project director for the Dakshina Kannada Zilla Panchayat, more women were eager to launch home-based food businesses, as evidenced by the 2,820 beneficiaries who applied for the PMFME Scheme under the Prime Minister's Formalization of Micro Food Processing Enterprises (PMFME) in the district during the current fiscal year.
On Wednesday, the ZP, skill development, entrepreneurship and livelihood department held a training workshop on the topics of the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India, GST, Mudra, and PMFME for members of the Sanjeevini self-help group. He claimed that SHGs were providing training to women living below the poverty line for their economic empowerment. As many as 134 women qualified to operate Swatchata Vahini vehicles, and many others received initial funding of Rs. 4,000 through PMFME.
According to Mr. Naik, 40 women received FSSAI certificates for their micro food businesses even though the state government designated the current fiscal year as the year of livelihood.
While the products were being packaged and branded in cooperation with the United Nations Development Project, the process of marketing homemade food products online had already begun. He claimed that resource people at the taluk level were gathering information on how to support non-agriculturally based businesses and offer marketing assistance.
After launching the workshop, zilla panchayat CEO Kumara said that if women took an active role in starting home-based food businesses, they could become economically independent. Demand for quality food was increasing since over a decade, he said urging women to exploit the demand.
Rural women were included in Sanjeevini SHGs, giving every family access to employment. Numerous initiatives in this direction have been carried out by the Sanjeevini-Karnataka State Rural Livelihood Development Project.
Mr. Kumara stated that there were 5,806 individual SHGs with 67,149 members organised into 223 and 886 SHG federations at the ward and gramme panchayat levels, respectively, in the district. Additionally, 125 farmer-producer organisations received grants totaling 1.5 lakh each. Minor forest produces were being segregated, value added and marketed through three centres in the district while Sanjeevini SHG members were managing 162 solid waste management centres.
At the event, Mr. Kumara gave FSSAI credentials to ten SHG members who had registered for the PMFME programme.
