Union Minister of State for Rural Development inaugurates the Saras Food Festival-2022

Source: The post is based on the article “Union Minister of State for Rural Development inaugurates the Saras Food Festival-2022” published in PIB on 1st November 2022.

What is the News?

Saras Food Festival,2022 has been organized in New Delhi to promote ethnic and home-made handicrafts, paintings, toys, etc., prepared by women of Self-Help Groups(SHGs).

What is the Saras Food Festival?

Organized by: Union Ministry of Rural Development as an effort to empower women on a large scale.

Aim: To give women SHGs an opportunity to showcase their skills in the field of food making and introduce people to the food culture of our country.

Participation: Women from self-help groups formed under the flagship program ‘National Rural Livelihoods Mission’ of the Union Ministry of Rural Development are participating in this festival.

What are the other steps taken to empower Women SHGs?

There are about 8 crore 62 lakh women who are members of SHGs and they have a presence in 97% of Blocks, while 85 % of them are directly connected with the network of the Ministry of Rural Development.

Efforts are on to have at least 25% of all sales by women self-help groups through e-commerce portals annually.

For this, the Government has launched an e-commerce portal for better and more effective marketing of Saras products prepared by women of self-help groups.

The government will also take steps to establish Saras stalls by women SHGs in all State capitals, major cities and metros, airports and railway stations for widening the reach of marketing.