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Dimapur, March 27 (EMN): In a landmark achievement for the women self help groups (SHG), three blocks/ cluster level federations (BLF/CLF) under the Nagaland State Rural Livelihoods Mission (NSRLM) were registered under the Nagaland Cooperative Societies Registration Act 2017.
With the registration, the SHG federations namely (i) Japfüphi Women’s Livelihoods and Credit Cooperative Society, Jakhama block in Kohima; (ii) Mongchemla Women’s Livelihoods and Credit Cooperative Society, Longleng block in Longleng district; (iii) EnglanYingsung Women’s Livelihoods and Credit Cooperative Society, Wokha block in Wokha district; would now have legal status and act as financial intermediary for its SHG members, an update from NSRLM stated. It added that the societies are now functional and have appointed managers and accountants for management of their offices.
A felicitation programme for the CLF cooperative societies was organised on March 24 at Hotel Vivor in Kohima with leaders of the federations from the three blocks and officials from NSRLM and Cooperation department.
Delivering the keynote address, Imtimenla, NSRLM mission director, expressed delight at achieving a milestone in the journey of the mission from inception till the registering of the federations. She has attributed the achievement to the concerted efforts of both mission and community right from institution building of SHG to village level organisations and now to federations.
Congratulating the women on their success, she impressed upon them the responsibility of becoming role models to guide other SHG federations to follow the same path. She also encouraged the rural women to strive towards bringing more positive changes in their own villages and among the community, while mentioning that they are now self-managed, self-reliant and self-sustaining institutions and they must imbibe a sense of ownership to ensure the holistic success of the rural community at large.
Felicitating the three registered cooperative societies with certificates and bye-laws, Temjen Longkumer, registrar of the Cooperation department, lauded NSRLM for doing a commendable job in elevating the economic conditions of the grassroots community.
Talking about the amount of work a woman has to do to take care of the family, he said women are still not appreciated and gender inequality is still rampant in the society. He opined that only by empowering women, the issue of inequality could be addressed.
He further emphasised on the potential of women in becoming productive contributors and in some cases, even as sole breadwinners for a family.
In his closing remarks, M RollanLotha, NSRLM COO (programmes), has appreciated the mission block staff for the constant handholding and facilitating support given to the community institutions and bringing them to this stage. Commenting that the central government has invested crores of rupees in a single block, he stated that such a commitment should be converted to successful ventures so that community institutions would be able to stand on their own after a point of time. While thanking the department of Cooperation, he stated that the joint venture would bear fruits with the registration of more SHG federations in the coming days.
A presentation on the process of development of the model CLF was made by Nzan, block programme manager of Wokha block, and S Zuchibeni Odyuo, president of the EnglanYingsung Society, Wokha, delivered a short speech of appreciation.