Women leading fight against COVID-19 in northeast: Minister Jitendra Singh

The women in the northeast are taking the lead in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic and helping the region emerge as a model for COVID-19 management, said Union Minister Jitendra Singh on Saturday.

New Delhi:Union Minister Jitendra Singh on Saturday said the women in the northeast are taking the lead in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic and helping the region emerge as a model for COVID-19 management.

Interacting with various self-help groups associated with the North Eastern Region Community Resource and Management Programme (NERCORMP) through a webinar, Singh said the women power ("matrashakti") of the northeastern region is also taking the lead in all spheres of economic activity after a successful management of the coronavirus pandemic.

"Women have excelled in the fight against the pandemic and helped the northeastern region emerge as a model of coronavirus management with very limited number of cases and just 17 deaths in all the eight states so far," he said.

Singh, the Union Minister for Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), said the region has also emerged as a model of development in the last six years under the Narendra Modi government at the Centre.

He said the northeastern region will take the lead for India to emerge as an economic power with the support of its huge natural and human skill resources in the post-COVID-19 era.

Singh said the prime minister has always accorded the highest priority to the northeast and since 2014, he has made every effort to bring the region at par with the more developed regions of the country.

He said the northeast accounts for 60 per cent of India''s bamboo reserve and it is a great advantage that under Modi's leadership, the sector has received the kind of boost that it had never received since Independence.

In this regard, he referred to the amendment in the 100-year-old Indian Forest Act brought in by the government in 2017, as a result of which, home-grown bamboo was exempted from the purview of the legislation in order to enhance livelihood opportunities.

Singh also promised to organise an exhibition of the products of the self-help groups in the national capital once the coronavirus pandemic is over. PTI