Bhubaneswar: The regional office of the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) celebrated International Women’s Day here Tuesday with the theme ‘Count her in: Through economic empowerment.’ Sanghmitra Mishra of Utkal University joined the event as chief guest and Aruna M, GM of Indian Bank, Odisha joined as guest of honour.
During the event, 150 women micro-entrepreneurs from 15 districts, including Bolangir, Balasore, Cuttack, Dhenkanal, Ganjam, Jajpur, Jagatsinghpur, Kendrapara, Khurda, Mayurbhanj, Nayagarh, Puri, Sambalpur, Subarnapur and Sundergarh, were recognised as ‘change agents’ for their contribution to overall development of society.
Eleven lady bank officers who have done outstanding work by extending credit to micro-enterprises and for livelihood promotion were also recognized for their efforts. While highlighting the relevance of International Women’s Day, Sudhanshu KK Mishra, chief general manager (CGM) of NABARD Odisha, shared in detail various support schemes launched by NABARD for empowerment of rural women through micro-enterprise development programmes (MEDPs), livelihood and enterprise development programmes (LEDPs), self-help groups (SHGs), joint liability groups (JLGs), farmer producer organizations (FPOs), watershed, financial and digital literacy camps, sanitary literacy campaign and save water campaign.