DIBRUGARH, MAR 25: Gone are the days when women remained confined to their houses engrossed in house-hold chores Now-a-days, women have started looking for a forum to showcase their innate talent in various fields.
One such field is entrepreneurship where more and more women have started making their presence felt and contributing to the GDP of the country. In this context the women folks of Dibrugarh district is no exception.
This very characteristic of the Gen X, Millenials and Gen –Z women encouraged the present Minister of Industries, Commerce and Public Enterprises,Assam , Bimal Borah to explore avenues to provide these emerging women a platform where they could be skilled properly to help them launch their chosen ventures- from setting up of live stocks farming like piggery, goat farming, fishery to candle making, pickles making and other food processing units at micro level.
Accordingly , almost 2000 boys and girls, men and women were provided hands-on training by experts from National Pig Research Centre,Rani,Guwahati, Indian Institute of Entrepreneurship ,Guwahati, KVK, Dibrugarh, Numaligarh Refinery Limited, National Small Industries Corporation Ltd.,Guwahati, Dabur India Ltd, Tezpur,Sonitpur, Pattanjali Ayurveda Ltd.,Tezpur ,Sonitpur and Berger Paints India Ltd.,Nagaon, to name a few, during the recently concluded exhibition cum sales fair at Rajgarh,Dibrugarh held in December,2022.
While speaking to reporters, Bimal Bora said, “Having trained them for 5 days by various domain experts I realized that these women do possess the forte and mojo to usher in tremendous economic changes to society if given proper hand-holding support and more advanced hands-on training on their chosen business line. I selected 40 such budding women entrepreneurs from amongst the above trainees and divided them in to two groups of 20 each. One group was given hands on training on decorative candle making and the other on jam, jelly, pickles etc. making , for one month , by experts from National Small Industries Corporation Ltd.,Guwahati. The training expenses, including raw materials , was borne by NSIC Ltd.,Guwahati”.
An exhibition , solely of the products like decorative candle, pickles etc. produced during the training period by these 40 women was organized on 25th March,2023 at Zila Parishad Bhawan,Rajgarh,Dibrugarh.
Inaugurating the exhibition Bimal Borah said, “This exhibition, solely for the products produced during training period by these women, has been orgainsed to help them learn the dynamics of market. Life blood of an industry is its market; industry and market form virtuous cycle. Industry without market is not sustainable. Hence I decided to organize an exhibition solely for the products produced by these women entrepreneurs during their training period. To connect them with the market I have invited all the traders of Rajgarh town and requested them to find ways to sell the products through their own outlets and explore ways to ensure an outreach to places like Guwahati, Tinsukia,Tezpur, Jorhat etc. I have already advised Morgan Meston, General Manager, District Industries Centre,Dibrugarh to arrange small loans under MUDRA scheme for these entrepreneurs . Once these units are set up at miniature level, for further up-gradation they can be assisted under schemes like PMEGP and PMFME . Meston has been proactively following up with the banks to get these loans sanctioned at the earliest. All in all, this initiative seems to have paid off . It is a harbinger of hope and aspiration for Gen X,Millenials and Gen Z women entrepreneurs. Pan Assam the exhibition organized at Rajgarh, Dibrugarh with its accrued benefits derived through these follow up training programmes has become famous as Rajgarh Model . I would like to replicate this model in other districts of the State too for greater benefit of our people”.
Besides Bimal Borah, the programme was attended by Morgan Meston,General Manager, District Industries and Commerce Centre, Dibrugarh, Aftabuddin Ahmed ,Extension officer, District Industries and Commerce Centre, Dibrugarh and Palash Bhowmik, Chief Manager, Technology, National Small Industries Corporation Ltd.,Guwahati.