Raipur, 3 June .Chhattisgarh has become the top state in attaining sustainable development goal in gender equality as per the Niti Aayog’s SDG Index 2020-21 report released today.
The top five indicators of development are no poverty, zero hunger, health, education and gender equality. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) India Index evaluates progress of states and union territories with a qualitative assessment on 17 goals on social, economic and environmental parameters.
Last year, Chhattisgarh has witnessed high women participation in MNREGA with women securing Rs 4.65 crore paid employment out of Rs 9.17 crore generated. Women in Chhattisgarh made up for 50.75 per cent of the workforce during the first four months of the current financial year of 2020-21. Also, over 24.28 lakh women labourers got jobs during the different phases of lockdown.
Self-help groups in Chhattisgarh are a major contributor in economic empowerment of women especially in rural areas. 20 lakh women have been provided employment and means of income by connecting them with self-help groups. Women also have 50 per cent participation in panchayats in Chhattisgarh and are contributing in the development of the state as anganwadi workers, assistant, supervisor, “mitaanin”, teachers etc.
In Gauthans, women are conducting many economic activities along with making vermi compost. They are also getting income from the collection of minor forest produce. Earlier, only 7 types of minor forest produce were purchased on support price, now their number has been increased to 52, this has also increased the income of women.
Along with making a place in the top five sustainable development goals, the state is also amongst the performer states with an overall index score of 61 along with states like Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Odisha and others and moving fast towards entering the category of front-runner states.
