UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi appeared visibly happy when she heard that women through self-help groups (SHGs) ensured that registrar’s offices agreed to their demand of no sale deeds of land by men without the nod of their respective spouses. “We were shocked when the husband of one of the members of the SHG sold land
without her nod. After this, we went to the offices of the government and got an order issued by them stating that no sale deeds could be registered without the approvals of wives of land-owners,” Rajpati, hailing from UP, told Mrs Gandhi.
Mrs Gandhi energetically clapped when Rajpati said now the women not only take decisions, but even make others to take decisions of their choice.
She saw a short film made on the success story of Khajuri Devi, a resident of the Tonk district of Rajasthan, who not only lifted herself out of poverty, but went on to do the same for 2,000 more women of her area by setting up a dairy unit.
Mrs Gandhi appeared quite impressed to hear the story of Sarita Devi, a resident of Khagaria in Bihar, who, along with 621 other women from the BPL category, went on to set up a company selling seeds of paddy and pulses, apart from taking the productivity per acre three fold.