New Delhi: The Centre’s Deendayal Antodaya Yojana – National Rural Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NRLM) has succeeded in benefiting 10.05 crore women who have been mobilised into 90.87 lakh SHGs till October, the Lok Sabha was informed on Tuesday.
“The DAY-NRLM is a process-driven programme where various benefits such as Revolving Fund, Community Investment Fund, Bank Linkage etc. are extended to the SHGs in accordance with their eligibility and demands,” Minister of State for Rural Development Chandra Sekhar Pemmasani said in a written reply to a question.
The Ministry has commissioned impact evaluation studies to understand the implications on the financial independence of SHG women through the interventions under the DAY-NRLM. An impact evaluation study of DAY-NRLM shows a 19 per cent increase in the incomes of the beneficiaries over the base amount. The savings of the group went up by 28 per cent and their dependence on informal loans declined by 20 per cent.
There was an improved labour force participation – the proportion of females reporting secondary occupation is higher (4 per cent) in treatment areas.
There was also improved access to other Schemes – A significant increase in the number of social schemes availed by treatment households (6.5 per cent higher over the base value of 2.8 schemes).
The DAY-NRLM scheme is being implemented across the country (except Delhi & Chandigarh) to alleviate rural poverty inter-alia, through organising the rural poor women into Self Help Groups (SHGs) and continuously nurturing and supporting them till they attain an appreciable increase in income over a period of time, improve their quality of life and come out of abject poverty.
The minister further stated that the Lakhpati Didi initiative is one of the outcomes of DAY-NRLM. A structured approach has been adopted to make the Self-Help Group (SHG) members Lakhpati, i.e. they earn a minimum income of Rs 1 lakh per year on a sustainable basis.
According to the figures tabled by the minister, the total number of Lakhpati Didis has crossed the 1.15 crore mark in the country. The state-wise figures show that there are 14.87 lakh Lakhpati Didis in Andhra Pradesh, Bihar is at the second spot with 13.48 lakh followed by Madhya Pradesh (10.51 lakh) and Uttar Pradesh (8.42 lakh). The other states include Gujarat (5.39 lakh), Odisha (5.37 lakh), Jharkhand (3.51 lakh), Tamil Nadu (3.18 lakh), Kerala (2.85 lakh) and Karnataka (2.36 lakh.
The minister further stated that the NAMO drone Didi Scheme of the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare aims to provide drones to 15,000 SHG members under the DAY-NRLM from 2023-24 to 2025-26.
During the year 2023-24, the fertiliser companies, through their resources, have already distributed 503 drones to SHG members.
