NRLM: Himachal focuses on training women in fund management

The National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM) has made a major headway in empowering rural women and making them self-reliant, and the focus has now been shifted to training women in fund management to ensure that the funds are properly utilised, the government said today.
The mission is aimed at reaching out to all poor families and nurture them till they come out of poverty, and nearly 50,000 women from Below Poverty Line (BPL) families have been brought into the mainstream through 9,146 self-help groups since the mission's inception in 2013, an official spokesman said.
In order to strengthen the economy of rural women and provide them greater financial support, the mission aims at poverty alleviation through social mobilisation, institutions and capacity building, financial inclusion, saturation approach, skill generation and a portfolio of sustainable livelihoods.

Presently, NRLM was operational in five selected intensive blocks - Kandagaht, Mandi Sadar, Nurpur, Haroli and Basantpur, whereas the remaining non-intensive blocks have been covered partially.
The Centre has sanctioned Rs 1,496.98 lakh since inception of the programme and the state's share of Rs 333 lakh, which has already been spent.
NRLM would be covering all BPL families initially and later on all the poorest of the poor and also the families which are marginally above poverty line would be selected through the process of participatory identification of poor by organizing them into SHGs.

These groups have been linked with banks for micro financing and the banks would provide a loan of Rs 2-3 lakh on seven per cent interest rate to each SHG for initially starting its venture which could be raised up to Rs 10 lakh, depending on the performance of an SHG.

As of today, 7,170 SHGs have been linked with the banks providing them credit of Rs 72 crore against target of Rs 148 crore. As many as 17 women have been trained as resource persons and 50 more women will be imparted training.
The department has set a target of training 150 resource persons this year. These resource persons are paid a remuneration of Rs 500 per day.