Bhubaneswar: The state government announced a new scheme, “Lakhpati Didi Sahayika Yojana,” to provide pending remuneration to community support staff. Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi announced in the State Assembly that over 62,000 community support staff will benefit from this decision, receiving their remuneration from April 2024 retrospectively.
“I am announcing a new scheme called ‘Lakhpati Didi Sahayika Yojana’,” Majhi said. “Through this scheme, the government will bear the cost of the salary of community support staff for the time being and provide grants to Gram Panchayat Level Federations (GPLF) for this.”
The Odisha Livelihood Mission, under the National Rural Livelihood Mission, has been implemented since April 1, 2012. The mission aims to improve the livelihood of rural families and involve women in the family through self-help groups. These groups are organized at the village and panchayat levels to provide social and economic assistance.
To strengthen and empower these self-help groups, community support staff were appointed by the Gram Panchayat level federation. The staff includes Community Resource Person for Community Mobilization (CRP-CM), Master Book Keeper (MBK), Bank Mitra, and Prani Mitra. A total of 62,341 community support staff were appointed in the state.
The Odisha Livelihood Mission issued guidelines for the remuneration of Community Support Staff. As per these guidelines, funds were provided to the Gram Panchayat level federation for the remuneration of these staff at different rates for five years from April 1, 2019.
The CM stated that due to the lack of willpower of the previous government, the GPLFs could not be completed on their own, resulting in unpaid community support staff for ten months. The “Lakhpati Didi Yojana” aims to promote economic growth among women in self-help groups, with efforts to enable maximum women members to earn an annual income of one lakh rupees. The state government targets creating 2.5 lakh “Lakhpati Didi” by 2027.
“Apart from this, our government aims to build a prosperous Odisha by making women self-reliant. For this, community support staff women have an important role to play. Therefore, to solve their problems, our government has taken an important decision,” the CM added.
