06 August 2024, New Delhi: Lakhpati Didi is not a scheme but an output of the Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana – National Rural Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NRLM) scheme of the Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD). Under DAY-NRLM, as of 30th June 2024, 10.05 crore women have been mobilized into 90.86 Lakhs Self Help Groups (SHGs). Out of these SHG members, more than 1 crore SHG members have an annual income of more than Rs. 1 Lakh, i.e., they are Lakhpati Didis.
During the Financial Year 2024-25, the Government of India (GoI) has proposed an increased budgetary outlay of Rs. 15047.00 Crore for the DAY-NRLM. This will facilitate increased interventions for the livelihoods of SHG members. These interventions will not only empower the SHG members economically but will also facilitate women-led development.
The livelihoods for SHG members under various sub-schemes of DAY- NRLM will be diversified and deepened. Further, to facilitate a minimum income of Rs one lakh per annum to SHG members, potential Lakhpati Didis have been identified.
They are being hand-holded by Community Resource Persons in preparing livelihood business plans, establishing linkages for assets, skills, finance, technology, market, etc. Furthermore, a dedicated “Women Enterprise Acceleration Fund” has been established to support SHG members in individual and group enterprises. The convergence with other Ministries, e.g. Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Ministry of Animal Husbandry & Dairying, Ministry of Food Processing Industries, Ministry of Tribal Affairs, Ministry of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises, etc. is being strengthened, so that the benefit of their schemes can be availed by the SHG members.
DAY-NRLM is providing access to credit and microfinance facilities to empower women through various steps which are as follows:
i) Funds are provided to SHGs in the form of Revolving Fund (RF) and Community Investment Fund (CIF) to help them in creating a corpus, from which the SHG members can avail loans for various purposes. ii) The SHGs are also facilitated for Bank linkage for accessing credit at subsidized rates of interest. Since 2013-14, the SHGs have been assisted to access Bank credit of more than Rs. 9.00 lakh crores. The master circular for providing credit to women SHGs is issued by the Reserve Bank of India/National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) every year. iii) SHG members are also imparted financial literacy skills through training in accounting, record-keeping, budgeting, and loan management etc. iv) Start-up Village Entrepreneurship Programme (SVEP), a sub-scheme under the DAY-NRLM program supports and facilitates the SHGs and their family members to set-up small enterprises in the non-farm sector, create an eco-system of entrepreneurship in a block by providing training and hand-holding support through the Community Resource Person for Enterprise promotion (CRP-EP), finance through Community Enterprise Fund (CEF), domain and business related mentorship under a single roof called Block Resource Centre (BRC), Operated and Managed by the community.
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