Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation Shri Amit Shah launched multiple women empowerment initiatives through cooperative societies in Kollam, Kerala. The centerpiece was the inauguration of 'Vanitham She-Mart Shops' and launch of NCCF's 'Janah' products, aimed at directly connecting women Self-Help Groups and rural women entrepreneurs with markets and consumers.
Key initiatives include the establishment of over 300 She-Mart stores across Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Karnataka through collaboration between NCCF and Bharat Lajhna Sahakari Samiti. These stores will sell local products alongside Bharat Brand products, providing farmers and women entrepreneurs benefits across the entire value chain from procurement and processing to branding, packaging, and direct retail market access.
Several Memoranda of Understanding were exchanged, including between NCCF and The Central Financial Credit and Investment Co-operative (India) Limited for She-Mart development, and for supply-chain logistics integration of fisheries products of Bharatiya Matsya Pravartak Sangham with NCCF's Janah brand.
The program featured practical support measures including NCCF and NAFED mobile vans selling onions at subsidized ₹35 per kg, distribution of free urad and gram seed kits to women farmers under the Mission for Aatmanirbharta in Pulses, and scholarship cheques presented to daughters of registered farmers under the NAFED-Kalyan Scholarship Scheme covering nearly 2,000 families.
Minister Shah highlighted Kerala's strong cooperative foundation with over 23,000 active cooperative societies dating to pre-Independence era. He emphasized women's economic progress under the current government, noting women's labor force participation increased from 23% in 2017-18 to 40% currently, with bank accounts opened for 36 crore women and 3 crore women becoming Lakhpati Didis, targeting 6 crore by 2029.
The minister also identified significant potential in Kerala's Blue Economy sector, citing long coastline, backwaters, rivers, and maritime tradition, and urged state cooperation to maximize benefits from central schemes in fisheries covering trawlers, production, processing, packaging, branding, and exports.