Rs 90k cr loan sanctions on cards for women SHGs

According to Rural Development ministry, at present three crore women are linked to Aajeevika Mission and have availed about Rs 30,000 crore bank loans for economic activities. The rural development ministry is now planning to increase this loan amount up to Rs 90,000 crore. 

Terming it as the real change, secretary, Rural Development, Amarjeet Sinha said, “We are creating nonfarm employment for women in rural India, so that they can come out of poverty and stand on their own feet. Apart from job creation in nonfarm area in rural sector, this is good for the high rate of sustainable growth rate.” He said so while addressing a national workshop on Best Practices in National Rural Livelihoods Mission (NRLM) in Delhi on Monday. 

The top official of Rural Development ministry added that the government is working to engage with the poorest in various diverse employment opportunities besides agriculture under the NRLM scheme to eradicate poverty. “Under NRLM, we are trying to enable poor households’ access gainful self employment,” Sinha added. The special emphasis is particularly on vulnerable communities such as manual scavengers, victims of human trafficking, and vulnerable tribal groups among others.  

NRLM is an innovative flagship programme designed to alleviate rural poverty in a time-bound manner. Launched in 2011, the Mission aims at mobilizing all rural poor households into self-managed Self Help Groups (SHG) and federations which, in turn, promote the livelihoods of the poor.