Giriraj Singh chairs National Conclave on Enabling 2 Crore ‘LAKHPATI DIDIs’ today

Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana- National Rural Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NRLM) organized a National Conclave today on Enabling 2 Crore ‘LAKHPATIDIDIs’- SHG Didis who earn sustainable income of at least Rs one Lakh per annum per Household. Minister for Rural Development and Panchayati Raj, Shri Giriraj Singh chaired theNational Conclaveto review the mission’s strategy for the Lakhpati Didi initiative. The ambitious goal was announced by Prime Minister from the ramparts of Red Fort on August 15, 2023 in his Independence Day address. He said,”Today 10 crore Rural Women are part of the Self-Help Groups. When you go to a village, youwill find ‘bank-wali didi’, ‘Anganwadi didi’ and ‘dawai-wali (medicine) didi’.  It is my dream to make two crore lakhpati didis in the villages”.

Addressing the participants, Shri Giriraj Singh said that the mission is inspired and geared to realise Prime Minister’s dream in reality with hard work and multi-pronged approach in a time bound manner. He stressed on adopting Whole of Government approach for maximum impact through convergence to transform the rural economy with the enabling of Lakhpati Didis. He added that DAY-NRLM, the flagship poverty alleviation program of the Government of India is the world’s largest initiative to improve the livelihoods of the poor.

Minister of State, Rural Development and Steel, Shri Faggan Singh Kulaste, joining online from Bhopal stated that the Lakhpati Didis, as envisioned by the Prime Minister, are going to be driving  the rural economy and landscape in the Amrit Kaal.

Welcoming the participants, Secretary, Ministry of Rural Development, Shri Shailesh Kumar Singh thanked Minister for his guidance and support in efforts of DAY-NRLM towards enabling Lakhpati Didis and making this a goal for the mission. To give impetus to economic empowerment of Women, the Lakhpati Didi initiative has been initiated by the Mission, wherein each SHG household is encouraged to take up multiple livelihood activities coupled with value chain interventions, resulting in a sustainable income of Rupees One Lakh or more per year.

Setting the context, Additional Secretary, Rural Livelihoods and Mission Director, DAY-NRLM, Shri Charanjit Singh explained the horizon of the Lakhpati Didi initiative and the roadmap the Mission is taking for it. He added that the Mission has adopted WHOLE OF SOCIETY approach where in collaboration and partnership is strengthened with Government, Private Sector, Multi-lateral agencies, CSOs and technical institutions to provide all necessary support in enhancing income of the SHG Households.

The participants included various partners and support organisations both from the government and development sectors and Lakhpati SHG Didis and SHG Didis who aspire to join the Lakhpati Didi Club alongwith State Rural Livelihoods Mission from all over India. Over 1 crore SHG Didis from all over India joined the conclave via webcast.

Joint Secretary, Rural Livelihoods, MoRD, Ms. Swati Sharma in vote of thanks, thanked Minister for the guidance. She also thanked all participants for reflecting their commitment for the initiative. Deputy Director, DAY-NRLM, Shri Raman Wadhwa summed up the key takeaways of the conclave.

Backgrounder:

Some of the key achievements made under the Mission till date are: –

The Mission in its endeavour to empower the SHG women, have made concerted efforts in collectivization of women, strengthening their federations, capacitating them with knowledge and skills for livelihood intervention, financing and credit support etc. for the livelihood augmentation of the SHG women.

The Mission seeks to achieve its objective through investing in four core components viz., (a) social mobilization and promotion and strengthening of self-managed and financially sustainable community institutions of the rural poor; (b) financial inclusion of the rural poor; (c) sustainable livelihoods; and (d) social inclusion, social development and convergence.

1. Geographical Coverage: The Mission has covered 7091 blocks spread over 742 districts across all States and UTs (except Delhi and Chandigarh) under the intensive strategy.
2. Social Mobilization/Institution Building: 9.54 crore women have been mobilized into 87.39 lakh Self-Help Groups (SHGs).
3. Social Capital: Community driven approach is the central to the Mission’s implementation strategy. Nearly 4 lakh Community Resource Persons have been trained in multiple interventions.
4. Capitalization Support: Cumulatively, about Rs. 33,497.62 Crore has been provided as community investment support under the Mission.
5. SHG-Bank Linkage: Nearly Rs 6.96 lakh crore of bank credit has been accessed by the SHGs since 2013-14. The NPA at 1.88% is a result of the efforts undertaken at various levels of the Mission.
6. SHG members as Business Correspondent Agents (BCAs): In order to provide last mile delivery of financial services, more than 1,00,000 SHG members have been identified and trained as Business Correspondent Agents/ Digipay points. At present, 1.07 lakh Banking Correspondents Sakhi/Digipay Sakhi have been deployed.
7. Livelihoods: DAY-NRLM promotes sustainable agriculture, livestock and NTFPs in intensive blocks under the Farm interventions. The focus of the interventions is on training and capacity building, and promotion of agro-ecological practices as well as livestock practices to enhance crop and animal productivity. As of August 23, 3.02 crore women farmers have been covered under these interventions.

Under the Non-Farm strategy, DAY-NRLM works on Start Up Village Entrepreneurship Programme (SVEP) that aims to support entrepreneurs in rural areas to set up local enterprises. Implemented since 2016-17, nearly 2.45 lakh enterprises have been supported under SVEP thus far.

8. Custom Hiring Centers / Tool Banks: About 28623 Custom Hiring Centre/ Community Managed Tool Bank have been set up across multiple States. These CHCs enable small and marginal famers provided access to farm equipment and other services at a nominal rate.