The Ministry of Rural Development's Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Rural Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NRLM) today launched “Sangathan Se Samridhhi– Leaving no Rural Woman Behind”, a national campaign under Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav Samaveshi Vikaas, aimed at mobilizing 10 crore women from eligible rural households. This special drive will go on till June 30^th 2023 and aspires to bring all the vulnerable and marginalized rural households under the Self-Help Group (SHG) fold to enable them to draw benefits provided under the programme.

The campaign's primary objective is to mobilize disadvantaged rural communities unaware of the benefits of the DAY-NRLM program. The campaign will be organized in all states, with the expectation of forming more than 1.1 lakh SHGs during the period through interventions like organizing General Body Meetings of Village Organizationsand experience sharing by SHG champions to motivate left out households to join SHGs, conducting Community Resource Persondrives, mobilizing eligible women from PMAY-G beneficiary households, training new SHG members, reviving defunct SHGs, opening SHG bank accounts and creation of a common database of SHGs promoted by other stakeholders.

The campaign was launched by Shri Giriraj Singh, Minister of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj in New Delhi in the presence of dignitaries and officials from other ministries and lead partner banks. Also, present were Shri Shailesh Kumar Singh, Secretary - Rural Development, Shri Charanjit Singh, Additional Secretary – Rural Livelihoods and Smt. Smriti Sharan, Joint Secretary – Rural Livelihoods representing the Ministry and DAY-NRLM. CEOs, Mission Directors and senior mission staff from the State Rural Livelihoods Missions were the other notable guests present during the event.

Speaking on the occasion Shri Giriraj Singh said, “The rural population accounts for 65% of India’s total population. Hence, it is extremely important that women from these areas are accorded all possible opportunities to enable them to contribute significantly into making our country a 5 trillion economy.When 10 crore SHG members all become LakhpatiDidis, it will automatically have a considerable effect on the country’s GDP. And this was the vision with which DAY-NRLM was started so that at least one woman member from every rural household can join a Self Help Group and take advantage of the opportunities and financial support offered under the programme to improve their livelihoods.I am pleased that on the occasion of celebrating 75 years of Independence, we are launching this “Sangathan Se Samriddhi” campaign to mobilize an additional 1 crore women to the 9 crore women already part of the SHG movement. Even then, let us not stop at 10 crores. Let us go beyond and ensure that all rural women across the country join the SHG movement. I urge all our SHG members to reach out to left out women in their respective villages and inspire them to join existing SHGs or form their own SHGs”.

SHG women from across states actively participated in the event and women from Bihar, Tripura, Telangana, Maharashtra and Haryana shared their experiences on how the DAY-NRLM SHG movement supported them to come out of poverty by creating livelihood opportunities leading to their economic independence and social empowerment.

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PK