Context:
Prime Minister recently chaired a high-level meeting to review the progress made in realising his dream of making 2 crore ‘Lakhpati Didis’ in India.
Relevance:
GS II: Government policies and Interventions
Dimensions of the Article:
- Lakhpati Didi Initiative
- About Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Rural Livelihood Mission
Lakhpati Didi Initiative
- Announcement: The Lakhpati Didi Initiative was unveiled by the Prime Minister during his Independence Day speech on August 15, 2023.
- Objective: The primary goal of this initiative is to empower women to establish micro-enterprises within their respective villages.
- Scale: The government intends to train approximately two crore women through this program.
- Target: The initiative specifically focuses on providing training to women who are part of self-help groups (SHGs) to enable them to achieve a sustainable annual income of at least Rs 1 lakh per household.
- Execution: DAY-NRLM (Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana – National Rural Livelihoods Mission) is spearheading the Lakhpati Didi Initiative. The approach involves encouraging SHG households to engage in multiple livelihood activities alongside value chain interventions, with the end goal of securing an annual income of Rs 1 lakh or more.
- Skill Training: Women under this scheme will receive training in a variety of skills including plumbing, LED bulb manufacturing, drone operation and repair, as well as tailoring and weaving.
- Income Opportunities: After completing their training, women will have access to income-generating opportunities that utilize their acquired skills.
- Holistic Approach: The Ministry of Rural Development adopts a comprehensive, whole-of-government approach to ensure maximum impact through convergence, ultimately transforming the rural economy and enabling the emergence of ‘Lakhpati Didis.’
About Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Rural Livelihood Mission:
- It is a centrally sponsored programme, launched by the Ministry of Rural Development in June 2011.
- To eliminate rural poverty through the promotion of multiple livelihoods and improved access to financial services for the rural poor households across the country.
- To reach out to all rural poor households and impact their livelihoods.
The objective of the Mission is to promote sustainable livelihoods for the poor such that they come out of poverty. The institutions of the poor are intended to facilitate
- access to formal credit;
- support for diversification and strengthening of livelihoods;
- and access to entitlements and public services.
Functioning:
- It involves working with community institutions through community professionals in the spirit of self-help which is a unique proposition of DAY-NRLM.
- It impacts the livelihoods through universal social mobilization by inter alia organising one-woman member from each rural poor household into Self Help Groups (SHGs), their training and capacity building, facilitating their micro-livelihoods plans, and enabling them to implement their livelihoods plans through accessing financial resources from their own institutions and the banks.
Implementation:
- It is implemented in a Mission mode by special purpose vehicles (autonomous state societies) with dedicated implementation support units at the national, state, district and block levels, using professional human resources in order to provide continuous and long-term handholding support to each rural poor family
