#FICCI : Ritu Chhabria awarded for working towards Sustainable Development

Pune: FICCI Ladies Organisation outgoing President Harjinder Kaur Talwar honored and awarded FLO Pune Chapter and Ritu Prakash Chhabria, Chairperson 2019-2020 for an initiative – Working towards Sustainable Development Goals for women over a virtual Change of Guard session. The award was given for supporting 100 widowed women farmers in the district of Osmanabad. In two districts of Osmanabad, there is a high occurrence of farmer suicides because of the non-repayment of loans due to unpredictable crop losses. 

Our vision was to address this societal challenge by developing long term resilience and capabilities within families let by widowed farmers. The Intervention comprised of skill training for empowering the farmer widows, securing land ownership and assurance of perpetual seed supply. Through this project, about 60% of the widowed farmers have successfully repaid their debts and gained capabilities to undertake gainful farming, Chabbria mentioned. More than 80 percent of beneficiaries now enjoy and assured an annual supply of seeds. As a result, the beneficiaries have gained access to markets and have so far been able to sell agricultural produce worth Rs. 80-90 lakh. FLO Pune has sustained this project by allocating funds in agreement with the incoming new teams for the next two years, she added.