Raipur: The Chhattisgarh government has decided to waive off loans worth Rs 12.77 crore due to women self-help groups in the state. State Public Relations Department officials said here on Monday that Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel has announced to waive old loans of women groups so that they can again start new economic activities. Officials said that the Chief Minister has also announced a five-fold increase in the budget of loans given to women groups from the Mahila Kosh every year, increasing the budget of the Women’s Fund from Rs.2 crore to Rs.10 crore.
Chief Minister Baghel said that the Chhattisgarh government is engaged in doing justice to all sections of society. Welfare programs started in the state with farm loan waivers and irrigation tax waivers. Moving forward, this link has come to the fore in the form of a loan waiver with the aim of giving justice to women, after Rajiv Gandhi Kisan Nyay Yojana, Godhan Nyay Yojana, Rajiv Gandhi Gramin Krishi Bhumiless Mazdoor Nyay Yojana.
Adressing the malnutrition crises, the Congress government of the state claims that the number of malnourished children has come down by 32 per cent since the launch of the statewide Mukhyamantri Suposhan Abhiyan. As of January 2019, the number of malnourished children identified in the state was 4.51 lakh, out of which, in the situation of November 2021, about 2 lakh children have become free from malnutrition.
According to the National Family Survey-4, 37.7% of children below 5 years of age in the state were suffering from malnutrition and 47 per cent of women in the age group of 15 to 49 years were suffering from anaemia. Looking at these figures, most of the malnourished children were children from tribal and remote forest areas. The state government took this as a challenge and started the Chief Minister’s Nutrition Campaign in the entire state from the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi with the concept of ‘Malnutrition Free Chhattisgarh’.