Mission Shakti Is about Identity of Women, It’s about Women Claiming Their Space in Public Life: Sujata R. Karthikeyan

Bhubaneswar: Mission Shakti is not only about earning incomes. Income is very small part of the Mission Shakti Empowerment initiative. It is about the identity of a woman, it is about the voice of a woman. It is all about women coming out from the kitchens and claiming their space in public life. These are the nuances of the Mission Shakti movement of Odisha that has transformed the lives of more than 70 lakh women. These are the core ideals behind the Mission Shakti initiative that is taking Odisha forward.

Speaking at the Odisha Skill Conclave 2023, Commissioner-cum-Secretary to Government of Odisha, Mission Shakti Department, Sujata R. Karthikeyan has said that women’s empowerment is a key vertical for the Government of Odisha headed by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and is a non-negotiable vertical. That is why Odisha is perhaps the only state that has an exclusive Department of Mission Shakti.

In her deliberations, she said a lot of programs across the world and across the country have taken the Self Help Group route to empowerment of women, but Odisha’s Mission Shakti is different. It is different because the Government is headed by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik who continuously believes that women’s empowerment is not a slogan, it is a living code, it is a governance ethics that is non-negotiable. It’s not there in any other state of the country where we have a separate budget, separate resources meant for Self Help Groups.

The second reason why Mission Shakti is different is the State Cabinet in its first meeting has undertaken that Rs 5000 crore worth of goods and services of the State Government will be procured only from Mission Shakti SHGs. Today, 1,00,000 Self Help Groups are involved in paddy procurement. electricity meter reading, delivering take home ration for small kids in anganwadi centers, in managing eco tourist resorts, in doing various non-stereotypical activities for government and there are 22 departments involved in this.

This not only gives income to the women, but also makes them crucial partners in the governance of Odisha. And, this is where we stand out. Women are a very big link between government and society. So, when you take COVID, when we had the Covid pandemic, the SHG women members were our foot soldiers, who went from house to house explaining to people what is COVID and what are the do’s and don’ts. When natural disasters strike, they are the people who are going from house to house vacating pregnant women along with the health department and the district administration. It is our women who run community kitchens and make sure that everybody is fed. And this is not done as per government diktat. They are natural leaders of the community. So, this is again how it is different in the government manifesto. It is there that there should be a state level Federation exclusively to advise all the government departments on what to do on women’s empowerment. This is again something very unique about the state of Orissa.

Today, when we see in local body elections in Odisha, though there is reservation of 50% for women, 70% to 80% seats in some places have gone to women who have come on their own as leaders of the community and in that Mission Shakti has played a big role. Karthikeyan also said that “Every woman or a girl has the right to be empowered to aspire and achieve those aspirations. Gender and skilling, gender and empowerment are important for the government agenda. Our efforts will be to ensure that through Mission Shakti we are able to empower the women of the state.”