Bhubaneswar: Acting on the directives of Deputy Chief Minister Pravati Parida and Minister of Housing & Urban Development Department Dr Krushna Chandra Mohapatra, a strategic meeting on the convergence of Mission Shakti and the National Urban Livelihoods Mission (NULM) was convened today under the chairmanship of Usha Padhee, Principal Secretary, Housing & Urban Development Department.
The meeting, held at Kharavela Bhawan, was attended by Director Municipal Administration Arindam Dakua, Director Mission Shakti Dr Monica Priyadarshini, Additional Secretary-cum-PD, SUDA Rabindra Sahu, Additional Secretary, Mission Shakti Abinash Rout and senior officials of both departments.
Focusing on a stronger and more cohesive ecosystem for women-led urban livelihoods, the discussions centred on aligning Mission Shakti SHGs with NULM’s community institutions to ensure unified planning and delivery.
Usha Padhee underscored the importance of a seamless institutional architecture for advancing women’s economic empowerment across urban Odisha.
“Our aim is to ensure that women’s collectives in cities gain improved access to skills, markets, credit and entrepreneurship opportunities. The convergence of Mission Shakti and NULM will open new avenues for sustainable, women-led economic growth,” Padhee said.
Key deliberations included streamlining coordination between SHGs, ALFs and CLFs, designing a shared skilling and enterprise development framework, and strengthening market linkages through urban haats, branding support, e-commerce platforms and government procurement. Enhancing financial inclusion and expanding credit access for scaling women-led microenterprises were also prioritised.
The convergence roadmap positions Mission Shakti SHGs as central partners in Odisha’s urban transformation. Joint action plans by the H&UD and Mission Shakti Departments will be rolled out shortly to operationalise the collaborative initiatives.
