HYDERABAD, NOV 9: In a remote village called Sriramnagar in Rangareddy district of Andhra Pradesh, a band of 150 women could teach their urban counterparts a few things about empowerment. These women may be semi-literate, but their endeavour to transcend the harshness of their physical environment would put many theorists to shame.

With little resource to their name, they had the vision to participate in a major programme launched by the State Government for their empowerment.

These women, who have organised themselves in ten self groups, contributed a rupee every day, thereby saving more than Rs 115 crores to carry on their economic activity without looking for financial assistance from any external agencies.

With a sense of pride, representatives of the women of Sriramnagar told a group of visiting newspersons that they would not part with their money to their better halves and ensure that it would be ploughed into productive work.

According to Andhra Pradesh Rural Development Commissioner SP Tucker, the formation of the self-help groups was the first strategy to achieve women empowerment, which was adopted as a theme for poverty alleviation.

More than 72,000 such groups have been set up in the state under the centrally sponsored Development of Women and Children in Rural Areas (DWCRA). Under this programme, 140,000 groups had been formed all over the country.

Tucker said 50,000 groups had been formed under the Podupu (savings) Jyoti programme, aimed at encouraging savings among the rural women. The scheme had virtually covered all habitations in the district and more than 400 groups had been assisted under various schemes of the integrated rural development programme.

A mandal project officer in Moinabad mandal of Rangareddy district said the mandal office had provided a jeep to one of the self groups and had, in turn, hired the vehicle from it, thereby enabling the group to have a monthly income of Rs 8,000.

Enthused by the success of the programme, the state government had planned to float a exclusive bank for women with a corpus of Rs 1,000 crores. The proposed bank would provide assistance to various groups. The project report for the bank, which might seek assistance from external sources, was likely to be ready before the year end, Tucker said.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.