Uttar Pradesh govt plans to groom over 500K women micro entrepreneurs

Uttar Pradesh is planning to groom and empower more than 500,000 women to lead micro enterprises and boost the rural economy.

 

The enterprises will take shape in the hinterland with the Yogi Adityanath government offering training, credit and marketing support across 75 districts.

 

Under the road map, over 13,000 women will be trained as micro-enterprise sakhis, and each of them in turn will groom 50 others with varied self-employment opportunities.

 

The UP government is targeting to facilitate the setting up of almost 650,000 women-led micro enterprises with institutional financial and marketing backing.

 

According to Mission Director, State Rural Livelihood Mission (SRLM), Deepa Ranjan, more than 9,000 micro-enterprise sakhis have already been selected.

 

In UP, women have been appointed as sakhis for several segments, including banking, electricity, agriculture livelihood, livestock, silk, and solar.

 

“The SRLM is taking a step beyond livelihood to develop women’s self-help groups (SHGs) into micro-enterprise sakhis,” a senior official said on condition of anonymity.

 

Until now, women used to work to sustain their livelihood. However, through this initiative, they will become entrepreneurs and create employment and micro enterprise opportunities for other women, thereby becoming agents of positive transformation for other grassroots women.

 

They will be provided expert guidance and support on several aspects such as starting small businesses, obtaining financial assistance and marketing knowledge.

 

With the help of bank sakhis, they will be provided with access to bank loans since the UP SRLM is aligned with the National Rural Livelihood Mission.

 

Meanwhile, the UP government has actively been partnering with non-profit and private organisations to catalyse the women SHGs and link them with the market.

 

The private sector has also been roping in women micro enterprises and SHGs in their back-end supply chain or as part of their corporate social responsibility.

 

“For example, Amazon India runs a ‘Saheli’ initiative to promote women artisans and entrepreneurs with a major focus on the Tier-II and III cities,” said Director of Amazon Fashion Nikhil Sinha.

 

Moreover, UP’s flagship One District One Product (ODOP) scheme, which promotes traditional and indigenous products, provides a viable commercial platform to women entrepreneurs.