International firm to help local SHGs

CHENNAI: The United States and India are planning an initiative to train women to be leaders in a bid to promote democracy at the local level, said US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Delivering a speech at the Working Women's Forum here on Wednesday, Clinton said both countries were establishing a regional training programme at the Asian University for Women to highlight the success of the panchayat programme and train women to be local leaders. The US Secretary of State also announced that Goldman Sachs, a global financial company, would support a training programme through the Indian School of Business to help SHGs take businesses from the villagelevel to cities and from countries to the world.Hailing Working Women's Forum president Jaya Arunachalam for the growth of an 800women membership in 1978 to a one million group, she said that the selfhelp movement had brought about a change in the life of women from countries including India, Bangladesh, South Africa, Chile or Nicargua.