Women groups must come together to seek their rights: Prez

New Delhi, Apr 27 (UNI) President Pratibha Devisingh Patil today asked NGOs to draw up for themselves a set of guidelines incorporating standards of accountability and transparency in functioning for producing better results.

''This will not only ensure their smooth functioning but will also be important for building credibility and avoidance of criticism. If you are to be the agents of change, it is important to win people's trust, since it is trust alone that can give NGOs acceptability among the people and an image of integrity,'' the President said in her valedictory address at the national meet of the Confederation of NGOs of Rural India here.

She called upon NGOs to facilitate the Second Green Revolution in the interest of food security and rural development. They, along with policymakers, should look at how research and dissemination of information about use of better quality of seeds, improved harvesting facilities and better agriculture techniques and methodologies could enhance agricultural productivity and output.

Ms Patil said NGOs had the responsibility to reach out to the most under-privileged sections of society. They should work selflessly in their midst. Empowerment of the most deprived sections was necessary for building a more equitable society.

NGOs should be committed bands of social workers for promoting development, she said. Women groups, in particular, must come together to seek both their growth and rights. NGOs must look at how to work with women groups to enable the delivery of the benefits of the government programmes to women.

UNI SN HS AS1907