Continuous fine-tuning required for success of SHG Movement: CM

Hyderabad, July 15 : Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy on Monday emphasized that constant monitoring and revamping were required as per the requirement of the people for the Women Self-Help Group movement for achieving further success in spite of the fact that A.P. is a role model in the Country as far as SHG Programmes are concerned.

The Chief Minister released a book “Man In The Hat” – biography of Mr Shoaib Sultan Khan, one of the pioneers of Social Mobilisation and Participatory Rural Development Programmes in Pakistan, written by Australian writer Mr Noel Cossins, here at Secretariat this afternoon.

The Chief Minister said that “the will of the people is that they should help themselves” is the principle that literally changed the movement and reached the peak. Even after reaching this stage, continuous monitoring and fine-tuning is necessary for the movement to make further progress. By hard-work of the officials, staff, stake-holders of the movement i.e. women members the programme was brought to this stage, the Chief Minister added. The biography of Shoaib Sultan Khan will be the guiding force for all our Officers to take up welfare programmes like the “Indira Kranthi Padham”.

Minister for Women Development, Child Welfare and IKP, Smt Sunita Lakshma Reddy congratulated Shoaib Khan and the author Noel Cossins and said three pilot projects of SHG were taken up by Sri Shoaib Khan in three districts—Mahabubnagar, Kurnool, and Anantapur, when he was working for the United Nations South Asian Poverty Alleviation Programme.

In December 1982, Shoaib Khan initiated the “Agha Khan Rural Support Programme” making a difference to the livelihood of a million people in the Northern Areas and Chitral district of Pakistan. In Khan’s words, it took him 12 years at the Agha Khan Rural Support Programme to organize one million people in Pakistan, while Andhra Pradesh was able to organize around 55 million people because of Government support.

Principal Secretary, Rural Development Sri R.Subrahmanyam said that this work (Book) is an honour to the entire SHG movement, K.Raju, Senior IAS Officer introduced Shoaib Khan. He was born and brought up in Luknow and later moved to Pakistan. Under his guidance, 3 pilot projects in 700 villages took up in the State.

The Chief Minister felicitated the author on this occasion. A.Murali, Additional CEO, SERP, Paramesh Shah of World Bank and other senior officials attended the Programme. INN