Port Blair, Jan 29: As a part of National Girl Child Day under Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao Scheme, various programmes have been organized in a befitting manner by Mahila Shakti Kendra under Directorate of Social Welfare recently. Oath taking ceremony to eliminate gender biased discrimination and to spread the message in all the educational institutions, signature campaign to highlight protection of girl child, celebration of birth of girl child in anganwadi centers and tree plantation programme in all the Child Care Institutions were some of the events organized during the week.
The conclusive Mega Event “Hunar-2020” on the eve of National Girl Child Day was conducted in collaboration with Department of Rural Development & PRIs on 24th January, 2020 at ITF Ground. The programme was graced among others by Shri Abhishek Dev, Deputy Commissioner, South Andaman, Smt. Kriti Garg, Secretary (Education & Sports), Smt. Pooja Joshi, Secretary (Industries), Smt. Angel B. Chauhan, Director (IP&T), Smt. Shimray Aiwo Bell Rose, Director (Art & Culture), Shr. Shailendra Kumar Singh, Director (Social Welfare) and Shri Hari Kallikatt, (IAS Probationer).
Addressing the gathering, the Secretary (Social Welfare), Smt. Geetika Sharma emphasized that the rural women of the Islands possess immense talent in different fields like academics, sports, art & culture, entrepreneurship and livelihood programmes. Therefore, Hunar aims to provide a platform to boost up their capabilities for livelihood activities. The Secretary (SW) also informed about the upcoming training in bamboo straw making to replace plastic straws and make India Plastic Free Zone and arrangement of loans to SHGs through NABARD.
Dance and Nukkad Natak were performed by Aditya Natya Academy on the theme of Women Empowerment.
The female achievers in the field of Academics, Sports, Art & Culture and Lady Entrepreneurs were felicitated by the Department. The various SHGs of Port Blair displayed their handmade products in the exhibition organized during the occasion and certificates and mementoes were awarded to the best four SHGs.
A similar programme was also conducted at the Community Hall, Campbell Bay in collaboration with Department of Rural Development & PRIs. Smt. Nitika Dev, State Project Coordinator, Mahila Shakti Kendra, Directorate of Social Welfare elaborated about the different women centric schemes and the platform available for the economic empowerment of women. Smt. Lalita Tigga, BDO, Campbell Bay informed about bank linkages for credit facilities.
