WTP program has given wings to self-reliance dreams of rural women, says govt
Mar 08, 2021
New Delhi [India], March 8 : The ministry of science and technology informed on Monday that around 10,000 rural women have benefitted from Women Technology Park (WTP) program under the Science & Technology for Women Scheme in the last five years in the country.
A professor in the Computer Science Department at the University of Petroleum and Energy Studies (UPES), Dehradun, Dr Neelu Ahuja is passionate about initiatives that would change the lives of rural women and other marginalised sections of society with the WTP program under the Science and Technology for Women Scheme of the Department of Science & Technology, stated the ministry in a media release on the occasion of International Women's Day.
She is confident that science and technology could play a vital role in the income-generation of rural women of Uttarakhand.
Through this scheme, she has been able to change the lives of 280 rural women of Dehradun by training them with skills to earn their livelihood by producing and selling various special items. They are the most enterprising among them 480 women trained under the project.
Through technological training, the women were able to utilise locally available natural resources like bamboo, jute, date palm leaves into jewellery items and decorative pieces. They also turned waste into wealth by making pencils out of newspaper and acquired the skill to cultivate medicinal plants.
"Regular earning has made them confident and now they want to explore more ways to increase their earning," said Ahuja.
Some of the innovative technologies that women have been trained in are operating shredder machines and usage of selective e-waste parts for remanufacturing, CNC hotwires cutter, vacuum-drying flowers, and 3D chocolate printing machines.
Also, knowledge and training are being provided in processing perishable raw materials like crop, fruit and vegetable, milk, meat, egg, and fish into marketable value-added products like virgin coconut oil, natural coconut vinegar, coir mat, herbal cosmetics, fruit, and vegetable preserves clean milk at a small scale. Such technology-based value addition not only increases the income from the sale but also enhances the shelf-life and functionality of the products, the ministry informed.
So far, 28 WTPs have been completed successfully and some of them are sustaining themselves and 12 parks are still ongoing in various parts of the country. With more such parks being planned in the future, the WTPs can play a vital role in creating AtmaNirbhar Bharat at the community level.
