SRINAGAR: Jammu and Kashmir Government is building strong grassroots institutions for the poor, engaging them in gainful livelihood interventions and ensuring appreciable improvement in their income on a sustainable basis through the UMEED scheme of J&K Rural Livelihood Mission (JKRLM).
JKRLM’s mandate is to reach out to 66% rural population across the 125 blocks of Jammu and Kashmir and to provide them with sustainable livelihood opportunities and nurture them so that they come out of poverty and appreciate an honorable quality of life.
The core values which guide all the activities under JKRLM are the inclusion of the poor and the substantial role of the poorest in all the processes, transparency, and accountability of all processes and institutions, proprietorship, and the key role of the poor and their institutions in all the stages – planning, implementation and monitoring and lastly community self-reliance and self-dependence.
JKRLM is emerging as the ray of hope for rural women as the programme has brought self-sufficiency among them. The women have not only come out of poverty but their status has also been raised within their own families by this mission. The mission is extensively based on capacity building and strengthening community-based institutions by empowering rural women at different levels.
Several girls from Kulgam district of South Kashmir forayed into mushroom cultivation under the RLM scheme in collaboration with the agriculture department.
Tahira Bashir, an entrepreneur and beneficiary of JKRLM from Kulgam expresses gratitude to the department due to which she started the Mushroom unit. “Officials guided us, which is why our unit is on the track. We had to deposit Rs. 15,000 which was refunded later. The profit from selling mushrooms entirely belongs to us,” said Tahira with satisfaction.
Saima Jan, another entrepreneur from Kulgam appeals to other women to start their own units with the help of UMEED and become self-sufficient as well as job providers.
Notably, CLF (Bhaderwah, Doda) was awarded as the best performing SHG Federation during the ‘National Conference on three Decades of SHG Bank Linkage Program and SHG Federation Awards Presentation’ organised by APMAS, Hyderabad.
Meanwhile, JKRLM and Meesho, India’s fastest-growing internet commerce company signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to support the growth of 1,800 Self-Help Groups (SHGs) by providing them with an online platform to launch and grow their business and empower the rural women entrepreneurs.
In the Pulwama district, 23-year-old Khairun Nissa became part of a women’s self-help group under UMEED and started a milk collection business. Gaining experience she started a dairy unit which she has been running successfully.
Afterward, Nissa set up a fodder shop and high-tech poly house for growing various exotic vegetables. Nowadays, she is doing fairly well. All her family members have been engaged in the business in one way or the other.
Her business is also creating job opportunities for others. “I hire many labourers at my business units on a wage basis,” Nissa said. With her hard work and dedication, Nisa has become an inspiration for many in the area.
