Self Help Groups (SHGs) of women in India have been recognized as an effective strategy for the empowerment of women in rural as well as urban areas : bringing women together from all spheres of life to fight for their rights or a cause. Since the overall empowerment of women is crucially dependent on economic empowerment, women through these SHGs work on a range of issues such as health, nutrition, agriculture, forestry, etc. besides income generation activities and seeking micro credit. Therefore, the main purpose of the Women Empowerment Project (WEP) is to organize women into effective Self Help Groups and through the medium of IGNOU's training Certificate Programme "Empowering Women through Self Help Groups" prepare a cadre/network of master trainers for the sustainability of these SHGs. For the purpose, the WEP has also established 150 Programme Centres all over the country with the satellite Direct Receiving System (DRS) to enable the women learners, at these Programme Centres, to interact directly through teleconferencing sessions with the experts at IGNOU headquarters. These teleconferencing sessions will be available to the learners on the Doordarshan Educational Channel 'Gyan Darshan' on the first and fourth Friday of every month from 3.00 - 5.00 p.m. (i.e. for two hours each time). On all the other Fridays, we will show programmes relevant to the course from 3.00 - 4.00 p.m. (i.e. one hour each time). Regular face-to-face counselling will also be provided at the Programme centres and interactive radio counselling over Akashvani's 'Gyan Vani'. The learners can also benefit from the other educational programmes telecast regularly over 'Gyan Darshan', which functions for 19 hours each day (5.00 a.m. to 12.00 p.m.). Details of all these programmes will be sent to our learners every month in the form of a booklet.