Bhubaneswar (Odisha) [India] March 29 (ANI): Senior IAS officer Sujata Rout Karthikeyan, who steered Odisha Government's Mission Shakti for many years to empower lakhs of women and made strong efforts to ease life of people, including boosting school education in Naxal-affected areas in her initial years as an administrator, has taken voluntary retirement.

An IAS officer of 2000 batch, Sujata Karthikeyan took several pioneering initiatives in her career. She served in the in the Naxal-affected Sundergarh district in Odisha and started the cycle scheme for high school students through bank sponsorship.

Sujata Karthikeyan steered the Mission Shakti initiative for many years, the flagship initiative of the then Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. Under her leadership it grew to a robust movement of 70 lakh women . The credit linkage to women's groups increased from Rs 500 crore to Rs 15000 crore in seven years. To encourage entrepreneurship among women, zero percent loans upto Rs 10 lakh was introduced. This saw a surge in women's enterprises across the state.

Another unique intervention taken up was systematic tying up of government business to women's groups. More than one lakh groups were involved in government activities like electricity bill collection, road construction, procurement, nursery raising, managing public infrastructure, running Laxmi buses , managing Mission Shakti cafes and so on. Their total turnover from government work alone was Rs 11,000 crore in five years .

The entire thrust of Mission Shakti was identity and empowerment. Women SHG members were routinely taken on exposure visits to Dubai and Singapore. To encourage marketing of SHG products Mission Shakti bazaars were set up across the state with an iconic boutique store in Bhubaneswar and a tie up with e- commerce platforms. Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates visited this store and appreciated the marketing of agricultural products to an urban consumer base.

In Sundargarh, in 2005, when road access to schools was challenging, especially for young girls, and there was high dropout of tribal girls after eighth standard, cycles were provided to girl students through bank sponsorship through Sujata Karthikeyan's initaitive.

The motto was 'Mobility is Empowerment'. This simple intervention enabled girls to continue high school education while empowering them otherwise too. This was later taken up by State Government for all schools across Odisha.

Sujata Karthikeyan was known as 'Football Collector' in Sundergarh due to her penchant for distributing footballs in far off villages bordering Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh. Youth would welcome her as she provided football and hockey equipment encouraging young boys and girls to take up sports and stay away from Naxal activities or drugs.

She actively encouraged promotion of hockey in the district setting up hostels for women players and helping set up astroturf fields. Sports was seen as a way of life and as a mode of empowering the youth while keeping them healthy and physically fit.

In 2006, she introduced eggs in the Mid-Day Meal (MDM) scheme in all government schools of Sundergarh. This was inaugurated by then Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and later scaled up across the state.

Instead of increasing the quantity of dal or oil in MDM scheme, which were not very measurable, an egg was added in the weekly meals of kids. This immediately saw enrolment go up with children making it a point to attend school on egg days.

Sujata Karthikeyan was the first woman collector of Cuttack district and then joined as Director Social Welfare in state government.

The popular Mamta scheme was launched under her - a conditional cash transfer, maternity benefit scheme which was applicable universally.

This scheme's success inspired the erstwhile IGMBS - Indira Gandhi Maternity Benefit Scheme. It recognised the nutritional and rest needs of pregnant women and young mothers. To ensure dignity of women and reduce paperwork and red-tapism it followed a self-declaration format for claiming benefits and was universal in nature. Even today, 'Mamta' is a popular scheme for young mothers in Odisha.

As Secretary, Culture, which she held for a brief period of five months, she was instrumental in hosting the first ever World Odia language Conference in Bhubaneswar. It was attended by language enthusiasts from across the world, Odia diaspora and thousands of college students and was a big success.

Sujata Karthikeyan is married to BJD leader VK Pandian, who is former secretary of Odisha's 5T department. He had also opted for VRS before joining the BJD.

The Central Government on Friday approved the application of voluntary retirement of Sujata Karthikeyan and asked the Odisha government to issue the necessary notification. (ANI)