Amit Shah in Kollam: She-Mart Launched as Part of National Cooperative Drive for Women
Union Home Minister Amit Shah travelled to Kollam for a high-profile event centred on women's empowerment and cooperative development, inaugurating the She-Mart initiative and a range of schemes tied to the National Cooperative Consumers' Federation of India. The visit, also coinciding with Mata Amritanandamayi Devi's birthday celebrations at Amritapuri, made Kollam a focal point of national policy activity for the day.
🗳️ NCCF Conference at Kundara Draws Central Leadership to Kollam
Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation Amit Shah arrived in Kollam on Saturday, with the centrepiece of his visit being an NCCF conference held at the Pavithram Convention Centre in Kundara. The conference was organised as part of the International Year of Women Farmers and ran from 1445 to 1615 hours. Its central theme, 'Sahkar Se Samriddhi' or Prosperity through Cooperation, anchored Shah's public messaging around rural economic upliftment through cooperative structures. Shah inaugurated several NCCF initiatives at the event, including 'Vanitham She-Mart' shops that are intended to support women entrepreneurs, and flagged off mobile vans supplying subsidised onions from government buffer stocks at Rs 35 per kilogram. The 'Nandini Sahakar' and 'Swayam Shakti Sahakar' schemes were also expanded during the programme. Senior political figures were in attendance, including Union Minister of State Suresh Gopi, NCCF Managing Director Anees Joseph Chandra, Chairman Vishal Singh, and several local MLAs and parliamentarians, among them N K Premachandran, V Muraleedharan, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, and B B Gopakumar. Following the Kundara programme, Shah proceeded to Amritapuri at Vallikavu to attend the birthday celebrations of Mata Amritanandamayi Devi, adding a spiritual dimension to what was otherwise a policy-heavy visit. [3]
🤝 She-Mart Set to Expand to 300 Outlets Across South India from Kollam Launch
The 'She-Mart' initiative launched by Union Home Minister Amit Shah in Kollam is designed to grow into a network of 300 outlets spanning Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Karnataka, with the stated aim of connecting women entrepreneurs directly to market channels and reinforcing women-led development as a policy objective. Shah described the initiative in a post on X as a strong bridge between women entrepreneurs and the market, saying it would pave the way for more women to enter the fields of trade and commerce in alignment with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision of women-led development. Alongside the She-Mart inauguration, a scheme was launched through NCCF and NAFED mobile vans to make onions, atta, and rice available to consumers at subsidised rates, addressing both women's economic participation and household affordability in a single visit. Scholarship cheques for daughters of farmers were also distributed under the NAFED Kalyan Scholarship Scheme during the event. Taken together, the Kollam launches represent a concentrated rollout of cooperative-sector schemes under the 'Sahkar Se Samriddhi' framework, with Kollam serving as the southern launchpad for what the Union Ministry of Cooperation is positioning as a model for women-led cooperative enterprise across peninsular India. [6]
Sources: [3] uniindia.com · [6] Asianet Newsable