Time to turn rural women into economic leaders: Chief Secy
Srinagar, June 30: In a move to empower rural women and foster self-reliance, Chief Secretary Atal Dulloo today chaired a meeting to review the performance of the Jammu & Kashmir National Rural Livelihoods Mission (NRLM) here with the prime objective of transforming women registered with NRLM across the UT's rural areas into successful entrepreneurs.
On this occasion Dulloo emphasised the immense potential of this tremendous human resource of around 7 lakh women calling for their intensified social mobilisation and capacity building efforts to ignite a powerful movement of self-reliance among them.
The Chief Secretary further issued a slew of directives aimed at bolstering the economic independence of women Self-Help Group (SHG) members. He directed the registration of Cluster Level Federations (CLFs) with the Cooperative Department under the Cooperative Societies Act, strengthening their organisational framework.
Dulloo also enjoined upon the NRLM to aggressively enhance credit linkage for SHGs, aiming to reach at least 75,000 linkages by the end of October this year. The Chief Secretary stressed the need to bridge the existing gap of 16,000 linkages through focused efforts and active support from financial institutions.
Recognising the substantial number of literate SHG members (around 3 lakh), Chief Secretary Dulloo directed the MD, NRLM, to ensure they are skilled and trained. This will be achieved by linking them with the online Daksh Kisan Courses offered by the Agriculture Production Department, thereby increasing their chances of sustainable livelihoods.
In order to create successful entrepreneurs, he directed the organisation to link the members with the HADP of the Agriculture Production Department or with Mission YUVA of the Skill Development Department to achieve the set objective successfully.
On this occasion the Chief Secretary highlighted that mere formation of Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs) is not enough; their credit linkage and production must be the primary focus to ensure they become successful enterprises.
He emphasised optimal utilization and establishment of Community Managed Training Centres (CMTCs) across all 20 districts of the UT. Assistance from J&K Bank, NABARD, and other institutions, along with agreements with OMPLIS, shall be sought for comprehensive training of registered SHG members, he emphasised.
Dulloo also advised the Finance Department to prioritize the enrolment of all SHG members under social security schemes like PMSBY and PMJJBY. Furthermore, this 7 lakh strong human resource should be leveraged by the Finance Department to raise awareness about these schemes during an upcoming 3-month long campaign across the UT, he added.
The Chief Secretary also noted the potential of utilizing SHG members as Banking Correspondents, Krishi Sakhis, Pashu Sakhis, and Van Sakhis in rural areas, enhancing both their livelihoods and service delivery accessibility across the region.
Earlier in the meeting, Secretary RDD, Aijaz Assad, provided a panoramic view of NRLM's functioning in J&K, detailing past achievements and the future roadmap. He informed the meeting that J&K NRLM has successfully formed 94,000 Self-Help Groups (SHGs), covering 7.55 lakh rural households across the Union Territory.
Notably, J&K stands out as a top-performing State/UT in key parameters, securing 1st position in Cluster Level Federation (CLF) profiling, 2nd in Village Organisation profiling, and 4th in SHG profile capturing, he concluded.
