Flipkart, India’s homegrown e-commerce marketplace, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Ministry of Rural Development of the Government of India (MoRD), for their ambitious Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana – National Rural Livelihood Mission (DAY-NRLM) program, to help empower local businesses and self-help groups (SHGs) – especially those that are led by women – by bringing them into the e-commerce fold. The partnership is aligned with the DAY-NRLM’s goal of strengthening the capabilities of rural communities for self-employment and entrepreneurship, thus providing further impetus to the Prime Minister’s vision of an “Atmanirbhar Bharat”.

In the presence of Minister of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj, Shri Giriraj Singh, Minister of State for Rural Development Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti, the MoU was signed at a ceremony in Delhi by the Joint Secretary (RL), DAY-NRLM, Shri Charanjit Singh and Flipkart’s Chief Corporate Affairs Officer, Shri. Rajneesh Kumar on November 02, 2021.

On this occasion, Shri Giriraj Singh said, “SHGs are backbone of the rural economy and we are targeting to enhance their annual income to at least 1 lakh.  We are identifying and collaborating with all possible partners who can contribute to this cause and partnership between DAY NRLM and Flipkart will help in the process. Rural products from SHGs have huge potential of acceptance among the masses in India and abroad and e-commerce platform will prove to be an effective tool to harness it.” Shri Singh said that MoU will enable rural women to sell their products to more than 10 crore Flipkart's customers.

This MoU is a part of the Flipkart Samarth program and aims to provide skilled yet under-served communities of craftsmen, weavers and artisans with national market access through the Flipkart marketplace, as well as dedicated support for knowledge and training. Flipkart Samarth seeks to break entry barriers for local communities by providing time-bound incubation and support with onboarding, cataloging, marketing, account management, business insights, and warehousing. This will create more avenues for increasing business and trade inclusion and help in creating and sustaining better livelihood opportunities.

The MoRD’s DAY-NRLM programme with its outreach in 6768 blocks of 706 districts across all 28 States and 6 UTs has 7.84 crore women mobilized into more than 71 lakh SHGs is proving as the game-changing initiative to empower poor rural women. Under the mission, poor women from different cross-sections of class and caste form into SHGs and their federations, providing financial, economic and social development services to their members for enhancing their income and quality of life. As part of the efforts to promote livelihoods activities, continuous efforts have been made by NRLM at state and national level for promoting rural products manufactured by these SHGs by providing platforms like Saras Fairs, Saras Gallery and retail outlets, state owned online e-commerce platforms and other commercial e-commerce platform.

Shri Charanjit Singh, Joint Secretary (Skills), DAY-NRLM said, “DAY-NRLM’s partnership with Flipkart Samarth provides a great platform for capacity-building, enhancing and impacting rural livelihoods, especially for women. This step will mobilize and channelize the resources required for building and supporting rural businesses to realize their full potential for growth, which is crucial for inclusive and robust national development, especially during the current post-COVID era.”

Rajneesh Kumar, Chief Corporate Affairs Officer, Flipkart Group said, “We are leveraging our knowledge of the Indian market to enhance social and economic development for the under-served communities, many of whom reside in rural areas. The crafts of India’s local artisans, weavers and self-help groups deserve to reach a far wider audience, including and beyond their respective regions. The Flipkart Samarth initiative provides them with access to potentially more than 350 million consumers on our platform spread across the country. We are delighted and honored to partner with the DAY-NRLM and be able to contribute to a vital aspect of nation-building.”

The Flipkart Samarth program was launched in 2019 as a sustainable and inclusive platform to empower underserved domestic communities and businesses with better opportunities and livelihoods. Flipkart Samarth is currently supporting the livelihoods of over 9,50,000 artisans, weavers and craftsmen across India, and is continuously working towards bringing even more sellers onto the platform.

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APS/JK/IA