ATSA to lend a helping hand to farm widows

Warangal: All required assistance would be provided to the bereaved families of farmers, who have committed suicides in Telangana, said a representative of Australian Telangana State Association (ATSA) Salakonda Harikrishna. He along with Sarvodaya Youth Organisation (SYO) secretary Pallepadu Damodar on Friday visited Atmakur and met the 14 beneficiary families that received financial assistance from the ATSA through the SYO this January.

It may be noted that the ATSA has donated an amount of Rs 5,78,598 to the affected families. Speaking on the occasion, Harikrishna has expressed serious concern over the incidence of farmer suicides in the State. It was sad that farmers, who were backbone of the Indian economy, were compelled to end their lives owing to vagaries of nature and lack of profitable prices.

He interacted with the farm widows and enquired about their livelihood activities they have taken up with the financial assistance they received from the ATSA. He asked the women to be brave and to shoulder the burden of offering good education to their children and help them settle in their lives.

Harikrishna lauded the efforts being made by the SYO in supporting the farm widows. Speaking on the occasion, Damodar informed that they were offering financial assistance to take up small scale business and conducting training programmes to equip the widows with tailoring and other skills to earn income, for the past several years.

So far, 150 affected families were offered support in Atmakur mandal. The beneficiaries were encouraged to run kirana shops and fancy stores, and take up cattle rearing, he added. A tailoring trainer G Radhika informed that the farm widows have formed into a group and were running a tailoring centre. She thanked the ATSA and the SYO for coming forward to help them though they were abandoned by their own families. Rashmi Deshpande, Keerthi Sathish, Keerthi Aparna, S Balakrishna, Jayaprada and the SYO staff present.