The Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and AIADMK chief J. Jayalalithaa today launched ‘Amma Kaipesi’ scheme, which offers free mobile phones with special software. The phones were provided to 20,000 Self Help Group (SHG) trainers, at a total cost of Rs.15 crores.

Jayalalithaa had announced the scheme under Rule 110 at the State Assembly in September last year, for the women SHGs. The software, in Tamil, will help the trainers maintain various registers and records related to their work.

While inaugurating the scheme via videoconferencing from the state Secretariat, Jayalalithaa said that the women’s SHGs were formed by her government in 1991. In 2005, her government, with the backing of the World Bank, launched the ‘Tamil Nadu New Life Scheme’ for women.