190. Credit, capacity building and market linkage for women entrepreneurs, SHG & women farmers
Status: The government runs the National Rural Livelihood Mission to organise rural poor women into self-help groups (SHGs) and support them by creating livelihood opportunities. In the past five years, number of households mobilised into SHG has grown from 5.6 crores to 9.1 crores, while the funds provided to these SHGs have more than doubled. The government also launched an initiative ‘lakhpati didi’ wherein each woman SHG household is encouraged to take up diverse livelihood activities to create a sustainable income of ₹1 lakh per annum; 1 crore women have become ‘lakhpati didi’ so far. Other key steps include ‘Namo Drone Didi’ to make women farmers and SHGs avail drones on rent for applying fertilisers and pesticides, the Start-up Village Entrepreneurship Programme to help SHG households set up enterprises in non-agri sectors, and Mahila Kisan Sashaktrikaran Pariyojana for funding and capacity building of women farmers on various aspects of agriculture. i ii iii iv