Pune Airport Becomes Maharashtra’s First Sales Hub For Women Self-Help Groups
Pune Airport Becomes Maharashtra’s First Sales Hub For Women Self-Help Groups
Pune, June 4: A special sales outlet titled ‘Umed Savitri’ by the Pune Zilla Parishad’s women self-help group (SHG) was inaugurated today at the Pune International Airport in the presence of Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and by the hands of Union Rural Development Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan.
The event was also graced by Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Minister Jaykumar Gore, Agriculture Minister Adv. Manikrao Kokate, Employment Guarantee Scheme and Horticulture Development Minister Bharat Gogawale, Minister of State for Rural Development Yogesh Kadam, MLA Jagdish Mulik, District Collector Jitendra Dudi, Zilla Parishad CEO Gajanan Patil, and Project Director of District Rural Development Agency (DRDA) Shalini Kadu.
The dignitaries toured the outlet, interacted with the women artisans, and gathered details about the products on display. The Chief Minister extended his best wishes to the women of the self-help group.
Also present at the event were Pune Municipal Commissioner Naval Kishore Ram, Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Commissioner Shekhar Singh, Pune Airport Director Santosh Doke, Pune City Police Joint Commissioner Ranjan Kumar Sharma, and Pune Rural SP Sandeep Singh Gill.
Maharashtra’s First Airport Outlet for Women Self-Help Groups
This marks the first time that a women’s SHG sales outlet has been established at an airport in Maharashtra. The Pune Zilla Parishad aims to create a market space for collective sale of products made by SHGs to promote women’s economic empowerment. With this objective, in 2024, the District Rural Development Agency, Pune, initiated efforts to secure a sales center at the Pune International Airport. The airport administration responded positively.
Under the *‘Avsar’* initiative of the Airports Authority of India, space is provided at airports to skilled artisans from local self-help groups to sell their handmade products. As part of this scheme, women from the ‘Umed’ self-help groups have been given space at the Pune Airport for the first time in Maharashtra.
