‘Look at Lijjat Papad': Nirmala Sitharaman on rural women empowerment

Budget 2023 has been hailed for bein growth-oriented.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman believes that the PM VIKAS initiative to empower traditional artisans will give a new life to self help women’s groups that exist in rural parts of the country. In an exclusive interview with Network18, the finance minister quoted the example of Lijjat Papad as a success story that other groups could emulate with the help of PM VIKAS.

Nirmala Sitharaman had announced the PM VIKAS (Pradhan Mantri Vishwakarma Kaushal Samman) initiative during her Budget speech in parliament on February 1. Under the scheme, skilled artisans and traditional craftsmen will get government support for upskilling, technology, credit and more.

The finance minister told Network18 that self help groups (SHGs) are a focus area of the Budget.

“We are going to shake up and give life to the self help women’s groups that exist in rural parts of the country,” Sitharaman said, adding that SHGs have been doing great work for decades. “There are 81 lakh such groups which exist today. We are now trying to aggregate, bring them together in clusters, see what they want to do in terms of production or services,” she said.

The finance minister went on to quote the example of Lijjat Papad, which was started by a group of women in Mumbai with a seed capital of Rs 80. “Look at the product, the quality, the branding, the perception about what is Lijjat,” she said, pointing out that people did not mind paying a bit extra for Lijjat Papad as they can be assured of its superior quality. “Like that, we want to make sure that SHGs benefit from government policy.”

Sitharaman addressed several other issues about the Budget and its impact on the people during her interview. Take a look at the interview highlights here.