The Central Government has recently launched a nationwide outreach campaign called ‘Sangathan Se Samridhhi – Leaving No Rural Woman Behind’, which aims to mobilise one crore rural women and form over one lakh Self-Help Groups (SHGs) by June 30, 2023.
As per data from the rural development ministry, the Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Rural Livelihoods Mission helped mobilise nearly nine crore households so far, with the total number of SHGs standing at 83 lakhs.
“We are launching the ‘Sangathan Se Samriddhi’ campaign to mobilise an additional one crore women to the nine crore who are already part of the SHG movement. Even then, let us not stop at 10 crores. Let us go beyond and ensure all rural women across the country join the SHG movement,” said minister for rural development and panchayati raj, Giriraj Singh.
Earlier this year, the Economic Survey 2023 by The Hindu highlighted how SHGs have great potential to increase women’s participation in the country’s labour force. As per the survey, given that 75 per cent of women workers in rural India were employed in the agricultural sector, the need to upskill and create employment for them in related sectors could be brought into play with the help of Self-Help Groups (SHG).
“The rural population accounts for 65 per cent 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,” added Singh.
Besides the campaign’s goal to grow the number of SHGs, it also aims to motivate the remaining households to join SHGs as well as effectively revive defunct SHGs.
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