The Hindu Business Line : Major role seen for NGOs in rural development

As economic reform and liberalisation saw the Government vacating several areas to let private sector entrepreneurship flourish and contribute to the high growth rate of the economy in recent years, a similar paradigm shift is needed to transform NGOs from their dependence on aid and grants from within and outside for transforming the rural scenario in the country.

This is sought to be achieved for the NGOs through engaging them in micro-finance, micro-insurance, and micro-entrepreneurship activities for the overall development of the rural areas and to promote the welfare of the people of rural India, Mr L.V. Saptharashi, Co-Chairman of the Confederation of NGOs in Rural India (CNRI), told Business Line.

Better credibility

As NGOs get finance generated through their own activities, their credibility vastly improves and their service to rural people gets reinforced, he added.

CNRI is an apex body with over 2,000 member-NGOs engaged in multifarious activities ranging from self-help group formation, income generation, marketing, agency work for insurance companies for life and non-life products and for banks and financial institutions to environment protection, watershed management, handicrafts, textiles, traditional medicinal plants and HR development.

It is completing one year of its existence. To mark the celebration of one year of its service to NGOs, CNRI is hosting a three-day national meet - `Advantage Rural India' - from April 17.

Special sessions

The meet will feature sessions on NGO/SHG products, finance and marketing, rural connectivity, energy needs and new technologies, employment opportunities for rural youth, role of NGOs in the field of rural education, experience sharing with the performing NGOs in the field of organic farming, value-added agriculture, food processing, animal husbandry, environment, forests and natural resource management.

The Union Minister for Rural Development, Dr Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, will inaugurate the meet; the Union Home Minister, Mr Shirvraj Patil, will address the participants.

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