Amit Shah launches women-focused cooperative initiatives in Keralam

Kollam: Union Home and Cooperation Minister Amit Shah on Saturday launched a series of initiatives aimed at strengthening women-led enterprises and the cooperative sector in Keralam, including the launch of Vanitham She-Mart outlets.

Speaking at an event in Kollam, Shah said the initiative was intended to connect women self-help groups and rural entrepreneurs directly with markets and consumers under the Centre’s “Sahkar se Samriddhi” approach.

More than 300 She-Mart stores are planned across Keralam, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. The outlets will offer locally produced goods along with Bharat Brand products, providing women entrepreneurs and farmers access to markets across the value chain, including procurement, processing, branding, packaging and retail.

Shah highlighted Keralam’s cooperative network, noting that the state has more than 23,000 cooperative institutions and a long history of organised cooperation.

He also launched the sale of NCCF’s ‘Janah’ products and remotely inaugurated Vanitham She-Mart outlets developed in collaboration with the Central Financial Credit and Investment Co-operative (India) Ltd. Bharat Atta and Bharat Rice were also made available through the outlets.

The minister said women’s economic participation had increased in recent years and highlighted government initiatives related to financial inclusion, women’s employment and the Lakhpati Didi programme. He said the government’s target is to enable 6 crore women to become Lakhpati Didis by 2029.

As part of the programme, free urad and gram seed kits were distributed to women farmers under the Mission for Aatmanirbharta in Pulses. Scholarships were also presented to daughters of registered farmers under the NAFED-Kalyan Scholarship Scheme.

Shah also flagged off NCCF and NAFED mobile vans supplying onions at a subsidised price of ₹35 per kg and highlighted Keralam’s potential in the fisheries and broader Blue Economy sectors