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The National Rural Livelihoods Mission (NRLM) places great emphasis on training and capacity building as key elements of its program. This is facilitated by the Institution Building and Capacity Building (IBCB) wing, which is responsible for training master trainers and state resource persons shares, Dr Ragapriya R., Mission Director, Karnataka State Rural Livelihood Mission in interaction with Krishna Mishra of Elets News Network (ENN). Edited excerpts:

How are you positively impacting the lives of ordinary rural household women?

Karnataka is a region that has made significant progress in uplifting the livelihoods of rural households through the National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM). The NRLM aims to alleviate poverty and create sustainable livelihood opportunities for the rural poor. In Sanjivani, the NRLM has been successful in creating a network of Self Help Groups (SHGs) that cover around 29 lakh households.

Under the NRLM, SHGs are provided with a Community Investment Fund (CIF) of Rs. 1.5 lakh, which enables them to engage in various activities such as internal lending and building infrastructure. This investment fund has empowered the SHGs to improve their livelihood status and become more self-sufficient.

Apart from providing the CIF, the NRLM also assists the SHGs in credit linkage with banks. The SHGs are provided with bank linkage of one to five lakhs, which helps them set up small enterprises. The NRLM also engages in convergence activities with other departments like MNREGA, through Agri Nutrient Garden, which is provided to each SHG woman, covering six lakh households. The NRLM also focuses on entrepreneurship development programs, like SVEP, OSF, and incubator projects, aimed at converting SHG women into women entrepreneurs. These programs have given rural women the opportunity to learn new skills and become more self-reliant.

To provide marketing opportunities for the SHGs, the NRLM conducts monthly, state, and national service melas where the SHG women can display their products and earn revenue. The last such service mela in Sanjivani made a profit of more than 1.5 crores.

Overall, the NRLM has been successful in creating a sustainable livelihood for rural households in Sanjivani Karnataka, through the network of SHGs, CIF, bank linkage, convergence activities, entrepreneurship development programs, and service melas. This has not only uplifted the lives of rural households but has also empowered rural women to become entrepreneurs and contribute to the economy.

Tell us some of your key initiatives to develop institutional capacity.

The National Rural Livelihoods Mission (NRLM) places great emphasis on training and capacity building as key elements of its program. This is facilitated by the Institution Building and Capacity Building (IBCB) wing, which is responsible for training master trainers and state resource persons who, in turn, train self-help groups (SHGs) on the principles and practices of successful SHG management.

The IBCB wing teaches SHGs about the Panchsutras and Dashasutra, which are the principles that need to be followed for successful SHG functioning. They also teach SHGs about the importance of conducting regular meetings, passing resolutions, and discussing agendas. Additionally, SHGs are trained on different activities that they can engage in, to promote their livelihoods.

Overall, the IBCB wing provides regular and comprehensive training to ensure that SHGs have the necessary knowledge and skills to effectively manage their groups and improve their livelihoods. This is a critical component of NRLM’s efforts to reduce poverty and empower rural communities.

Supply chain integration, logistics, and market linkages are major concerns in the rural economy. What specific steps are being undertaken for value chain development?

Supply chain integration is a crucial aspect on which we are working on. We have been conducting monthly markets in all the taluks and district headquarters to offer offline market opportunities for Self-Help Group (SHG) women to sell their products. Additionally, we have partnered with various online platforms such as Meesho, Amazon, and Flipkart to market our products. We are also in the process of developing an e-commerce platform, Sanjivani, which will increase the online sales. Value chain development is another crucial aspect that we are working upon. We have created around 5,800 producer groups, which are groups of 20 to 50 entrepreneurs who work together to produce a specific product. We have provided community enterprise funds to the producer groups, amounting to 1.5 lacs, which will help us to upgrade the infrastructure, create market linkages, and develop the necessary infrastructure to take the products forward.

Regular buyer-seller meets are also organised, which ensure that the SHG women and producer groups have a market for their products. By implementing these strategies, we have successfully integrated supply chains, developed value chains, and provided market linkages for SHG women and producer groups.

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Overall, these efforts have helped in improving the income and livelihoods of the SHG women and producer groups. Additionally, these initiatives have also helped in promoting entrepreneurship and empowering women in the community.

How are you working towards financial inclusion? What has been in the progress so far?

In order to achieve universal financial inclusion, the SHGs (Self Help Groups) that we work with have an impressive track record. Of the 4-5 lakh SHGs we are working with, we can confidently say that over 95 per cent of them have an SHG credit linkage. Our approach is to provide adequate bank linkage to SHGs within six months of their formation. To achieve this, we have a team of FLCRPs (Financial Literacy Community Resource Persons) numbering around 1800, who work with SHGs to help them understand financial literacy and access the necessary resources. In addition, we have 4,500 DIGIPAY sakis who assist in financial linkage for SHG groups. We also have a master book keeper of the GPLF (Group Promoting Lending Fund) who helps ensure that SHGs in need of loans are able to fill out loan applications in a prescribed format and submit them to the concerned banks, with loan sanctions granted within a specified period. This approach has helped us achieve a 95 per cent linkage rate, and we are confident that we will soon reach 100 per cent financial inclusion for all the SHGs we work with.

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