Ongole: DWCRA women to become partners in super bazaars

Ongole: The DWCRA women are going to become partners in super bazaars called 'Jagananna Mahila Marts', with a capital of just Rs 150. Apart from being partners, qualified DWCRA women would work in them as members of the board and also employees.

To provide an extra income to the women through regular purchase of groceries, cosmetics and other household items, the State government conceptualised Jagananna Mahila Marts. The government wants the DWCRA women to purchase groceries for their household from Jagananna Mahila Marts, in which all required groceries with better quality are available for a less price than the retailers. The government wants to make MoU with the large-scale manufacturers like ITC, TATA, ULL etc., to provide the products directly to Mahila Marts by saving the commissions to sell them at a lesser price than the prices in the market.

Women of DWCRA groups will gather small investments to make a lump sum as the principal for the business that is monitored, advised and handheld by the officials of Mission for Elimination of Poverty in Municipal Areas (MEPMA).

DWCRA group members will invest Rs 150 each as their share of investment and hand it over to their Slum Level Federation (SLF). The SLFs will send the total investment to the Town Level Federation, which opens a bank account in the name of 'Jagananna Mahila Mart' and authorises the elected committee members as part of the management to operate it. The members of the purchases committee, sales committee and accounts committee will perform their duties as per the schedule given to them to make sure all transactions are done transparently.

Jagananna Mahila Mart was started as a pilot project for the first time in Pulivendula in 2021 and they are said to be functioning in profits. Then the government gave nod to open similar marts in all districts, one at a time as pilot projects. Apart from Rayachoti, Tirupati and other places in other districts, the MEPMA officials selected Addanki for opening the pilot store in Prakasam district. They selected Anna Canteen, which was vacant for a long time, to set up Jagananna Mahila Mart in Addanki.

Tella Ravi Kumar, MEPMA project director for Prakasam district, explained that there are 8,000 women in DWCRA groups in Addanki and most of these members paid Rs 150 as their share, though payment is voluntary. He said that the State MEPMA officials already designed guidelines on how much to be spent on infrastructure, furniture and products etc. the government is providing building, and other infrastructure to the mart and facilitating all required approvals and permissions to help the DWCRA women make some money from their expenditure, he added.

Ravi Kumar further informed that based on the resolutions made in the management committee, the initial investment of Rs 150 will be returned to DWCRA women as dividend after a year or so, or they could reinvest it.

Based on the performance and decision of the management, the MEPMA will also help them extend the branches of the Mahila Mart to other places in the same town. He announced that they would set up similar super bazaars in the remaining towns soon.