More than 22 self-help groups (SHG) have put up stalls at Serampore heritage and tourism festival to display their handmade products.

The very aim and object of SHGs is to empower women and to make them self-reliant.

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The Serampore Municipality has lent their support to the self-help groups.

The SHGs play a vital role in giving credit access to the poor and this is extremely crucial in poverty alleviation. They also play a great role in empowering women because SHGs help women from economically weaker sections build social capital.

The self-help groups have set up stalls of varieties of handmade home decorative items like candles, incense sticks, pickles, papad, silk, cotton and khadi dress materials, upholding the Santiniketan tradition. Recipes for mouth watering food items like koraisuti (peas) and hinger (asafetida) kochuri, the traditional pithe puli, curry and fried items. One of the self-help group members said, “Our food items have been prepared with minimum oil and spices yet they taste marvelous. Till day, we have not received any complaints from our customers.”

The Serampore Municipality NULM department has supported the self-help groups.

The city mission manager NULM department, Serampore Municipality, Tania Hore, said “The SHGs can avail soft loans to start their business. Unemployed women, who need to support their family mostly constitute the self-help groups.”