Milestone: Panchayat dept disburses Rs 30K cr credit to SHGs across state

Kolkata: The state Panchayats and Rural Development (P&RD) department has reached a milestone in disbursement of credit to the Self-Help-Groups (SHG) across the state by releasing Rs 30,000 crore in the 2024-25 fiscal. As many as 10.37 lakh SHGs have benefitted through this record credit disbursement. Bengal is presently second in the country after Andhra Pradesh when it comes to credit disbursement to SHGs.

“We have also been able to touch an average credit of Rs 3 lakh to each of the SHGs for the first time since 2011. In the 2023-24 financial year, the average credit for each group was Rs 2.7 lakh while in 2022-23, it was 2.29 lakh. In 2010, this figure was only Rs 0.46 lakh,” said a senior official of P&RD department.

It may be noted that during the year 2010, the credit disbursed to the SHGs was Rs 530 crore bearing testimony to the emphasis of the Mamata Banerjee government in empowering women towards self reliance. “There has been a substantial increase in disbursement of credit to the SHGs particularly in the last 2-3 years; in 2020-21, the total amount provided was Rs 11,913 crore,” said the official.

The department has maintained regular contact with the bankers and hosted camps at the district level involving them to ensure that the SHGs with greater credit taking capacity get adequate loans for expansion of their venture.

The department is presently supporting 25 Farmer Producer Organisations, have emphasised formation of Integrated Farming Cluster and machine support for the SHG women. Entrepreneurship promotion programmes are also being hosted from time to time.

The West Bengal State Rural Livelihood Mission, popularly known as Anandadhara, has set a target of credit linkage of Rs 35,000 crore in the 2025-26 financial year.

According to P&RD department, seed money of Rs 30,000 is provided by the state government as soon as an SHG group is formed. Following this, the department does a grading of the group after a period of six months and on satisfactory performance it provides Rs 1.5 lakh. After 18 months, Rs 3 lakh is provided after another round of grading.

The support by the government has proved to be a boon in livelihood enhancement of the SHGs.