Proposal for construction of ‘Rural Technology Park (RTP)’ within the directorate of Women Resource Development (WRD) at Mereima, has been hampered due to fund constraint.
The project aims at developing low cost, women-friendly and easy-to-duplicate livelihood activities.
Speaking to Nagaland Post, WRD director, T Haralu said that the idea to develop RTP was conceived in 2015, but no budget has been sanction for RTP by the central ministry or state government.
However, the director said that the road leading to the proposed site of RTP has been constructed with assistance from allied departments like horticulture, agriculture and corporates as part of Corporate Social Responsibility.
Highlighting the benefits of RTP, Haralu said that once constructed would help women, especially from rural areas in “replicating low technology” such as eri-culture, mushroom culture, indigenous plant and floriculture, beekeeping, solar based solutions, piggery, vermi-composting, sustainable agro-based farming practices and other activities that could be suitably taken up in rural areas.
The director also has plans to develop low cost laboratory at Rural Technology Park , to develop chain in marketing.
Joint director WRD, R Khrienuo Tachu while highlighting various capacity building and skill development programmes for women, said that the programme were focused on long term vision to bring holistic changes in the society without “breaking traditional ties and alleviating their social status”, to ensure that gender parity achieved in the long run.
She said since the inception in 2003, the department had carried out Transformative Livelihood Intervention Project (TLI) in all districts with approximately 17,000 active women SHG members in 1289 SHGs, 223 Village Units and 29 registered Divisional Societies.
On financial assistance, Tachu informed that the department has been assisting the women through, “revolving Corpus Fund”, Interest Free Loan Programmes, Women Entrepreneurial Development Initiative (WEDI), Micro-Enterprise Development Scheme (MEDS) and Financial Assistance for Destitute Women Scheme.
To further enhance the activities of women, the WRD has set up Training-cum-Production Centre at Kohima, while Women Resource Centres are also coming up in all the districts, she added.
She said two such centres has been completed in Mokokchung and Chazouba, while a Multi Training-cum-Marketing Complex at Kohima is nearing completion.