In a bid to increase the coverage of self help groups, the Ministry of Rural Development on Friday announced a nationwide campaign to expedite the inclusion of women who are left out of the umbrella of Self Help Groups (SHGs) under the Deen Dayal Upadhyay National Rural Livelihood Mission.
As on August 31, more than 8.5 crore families have been linked with 78.33 lakh SHGs under the scheme. Rural Development secretary Nagendra Nath Sinha said that during the campaign, women institutions from each village would conduct a social mobilisation event where each member would bring a friend or neighbour who was not a SHG member. The campaign was also particularly aimed at women living in remote gram panchayats.
The Ministry also announced that the campaign was to give a structure to the SHGs involving them at higher level federations- Tier two level village organisations and tier three level cluster federations. The idea was to evolve community-managed institutions that could take a lead on livelihood and social development issues.
