Where devotion meets livelihood, Vijayawada is hosting the National SARAS Mela — and Union Agriculture & Rural Development Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan arrived there on Thursday, October 15 to witness firsthand the confluence of rural enterprise and the Navratri spirit. Chouhan shared a quote from President Draupadi Murmu, who highlighted that being in a city blessed by Goddess Kanaka Durga and attending the mela during Navratri felt like a remarkable convergence.

Quoting President Murmu's address, Chouhan posted: 'देवी कनक दुर्गा के आशीर्वाद से समृद्ध विजयवाड़ा में आयोजित राष्ट्रीय सरस मेले में आकर मुझे विशेष प्रसन्नता हो रही है।' — 'I am filled with special joy to be present at the National SARAS Mela held in Vijayawada, enriched by the blessings of Goddess Kanaka Durga.' The President also noted that she had visited the Kanaka Durga Temple the previous day, calling the timing of the mela during Navratri 'a very big coincidence.'

What SARAS Melas actually do for rural women

The National SARAS Mela is an annual exhibition run by the Ministry of Rural Development, designed as a direct marketplace for products crafted by women self-help groups (SHGs) and rural artisans from across India. The institutional backbone is the Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana–National Rural Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NRLM), launched in 2011, which organises millions of rural women into SHGs and equips them with credit, training, and market linkages. SARAS Melas are the storefront — the moment these groups step out of village workshops and sell directly to urban and semi-urban buyers.

Hosting the edition in Vijayawada, a major commercial and pilgrimage hub in Andhra Pradesh, is a calculated choice. The Navratri season draws hundreds of thousands of devotees to the city's iconic Kanaka Durga Temple, one of the most revered shrines in South India. That footfall translates directly into potential buyers at the mela gates. It is a pattern the Rural Development Ministry has refined over several years — anchor the mela to a festival calendar, park it near a high-footfall sacred site, and let cultural gravity do the marketing work.

President Murmu's presence and what it signals

President Draupadi Murmu, who took office in July 2022 as India's first tribal woman President, has consistently lent symbolic and substantive weight to programmes that serve tribal and rural communities. Her attendance at the Vijayawada SARAS Mela — and her visit to the Kanaka Durga Temple on the eve of the event — underscores the political and cultural significance attached to this edition. When a constitutional head of state visits a livelihood fair, it is not ceremony alone; it sends a message to buyers, media, and state governments about which programmes command national priority.

Chouhan, as the minister responsible for both agriculture and rural development, amplifying the President's words on his public platform extends that signal further — weaving together Navratri devotion, women's economic empowerment, and a flagship rural mission into a single, shareable moment.

The real measure of this mela's success will come in the sales figures and buyer-seller meets it generates — data that will shape how the Ministry plans future editions across India's festival map.