Bhubaneswar: Very soon, Self Help Groups (SHGs) will be able to sell their products at Biju Patnaik International Airport (BPIA) Bhubaneswar.
In a bid to encourage the talent of women, artisans and craftsmen and provide them with the right opportunities, the Airport Authority of India (AAI) has taken an initiative to allocate space to SHGs at its airports for selling/showcasing the self-made products of their region.
The BPIA is in the process of allotting space in coordination with the State Government to such Self-Help Groups under a new scheme called AVSAR (Airport as Venue for Skilled Artisans of The Region).
Apart from Bhubaneswar, the airports at Ranchi, Kolkata, Varanasi, Indore, Bhopal, Vadodara, Ranchi, Belagavi, Madurai, Coimbatore, Calicut, Surat, Raipur, Silchar, Dibrugarh and Jorhat have been included under the scheme.
The main objective of the scheme of AAI is to provide an opportunity to help the indigent to mobilize their households into functionally effective self-earned groups for self-reliance and self-dependence.
Under this scheme, an area of 100-200 square feet has been earmarked at each AAI operated airport. The space is being allotted to the self- help groups, turn on turn basis, for a duration of 15 days.
Few outlets have already been commissioned at Chennai, Agartala, Dehradun, Kushinagar, Udaipur & Amritsar Airport wherein SHGs operated by local women, are showcasing and marketing their homemade local products like Puffed Rice, Packaged Papad, Pickles, Bamboo based Ladies Bag/Bottle/Lamp Sets, local artefacts, traditional craft, natural dyes, embroidery and indigenous weaves with contemporary design to the air travellers.
Self-help Groups are India’s most powerful channels for empowering small and rural communities to move from subsistence to sustainability. The Government of India is constantly creating an atmosphere to strengthen the SHGs, sources said.
Many such groups are excellent producers, creators of local arts, craft, useful and quality products with demand from the consumers and they need opportunity and space to showcase their products. The initiative to strengthen SHGs by allotting space at AAI Airports will provide huge visibility to these small groups and prepare them to promote/market their products to the wider spectrum, reaching out to the larger population, they said.
The interested SHGs can submit their applications on AAI portal (airport wise) for allotment at airports in that particular State where the SHGs are located.
