SRINAGAR: Chief Secretary Atal Dulloo on Thursday directed the Jammu and Kashmir Rural Livelihoods Mission (JKRLM) to strengthen women-led community institutions through capacity building, institutional reforms and convergence with flagship government programmes to accelerate sustainable rural livelihoods across the Union Territory.
Chairing a review meeting of the mission, Dulloo assessed its performance with a focus on integration with Mission YUVA, operationalisation of Community Managed Training Centres (CMTCs), strengthening of Self Help Groups (SHGs), Village Organisations (VOs) and Cluster Level Federations (CLFs), and preparation of a roadmap for institutional development.
The Chief Secretary directed the mission to make Community Managed Training Centres functional in all districts at the earliest and develop them into centres for social mobilisation. He said the centres should promote awareness on sanitation, school enrolment, nutrition, immunisation, drug abuse and other social issues while examining the feasibility of providing them with dedicated infrastructure.
Dulloo also asked the mission to prepare a structured capacity-building plan by creating a pool of master trainers to train SHG members at the block level. He stressed closer convergence with Mission YUVA and the Holistic Agriculture Development Programme (HADP) to expand entrepreneurship, skill development and self-employment opportunities for rural women.
He directed the mission to bring nearly six lakh SHG members under these initiatives based on their aptitude and interests, with support from YUVA Doots for awareness and handholding.
The Chief Secretary also called for expansion of women-led food outlets established under the Kudumbashree partnership, improved bookkeeping through digital modules and enhanced bank linkage for SHGs to facilitate enterprise expansion through institutional credit.
He further directed that an independent national-level institution be engaged to conduct a qualitative assessment of JKRLM to identify gaps and recommend measures to strengthen its institutional framework and service delivery.
Earlier, Rural Development Department Secretary Aijaz Asad presented the mission’s achievements and future roadmap, highlighting progress in social mobilisation, financial inclusion, livelihood promotion and convergence with other government programmes.
Managing Director, JKRLM, Dr Shubhra Sharma informed the meeting that the mission has mobilised more than 8.14 lakh women into 96,595 Self Help Groups, 7,546 Village Organisations and 652 Cluster Level Federations across all 20 districts, 285 blocks and 4,291 Gram Panchayats.
The mission has provided over ₹532 crore as capital support to community institutions and facilitated cumulative bank credit of more than ₹3,449 crore through nearly 1.46 lakh credit-linked accounts, while maintaining a non-performing asset (NPA) level of 0.91 per cent.
Officials said JKRLM currently supports 7.35 lakh women farmers in 5,255 villages through more than 3,300 community resource persons. Over 64,000 farmers have been enrolled on the Daksh Kisan Portal, with more than 22,000 completing certification.
Under the Start-up Village Entrepreneurship Programme (SVEP), the mission has promoted 11,879 enterprises, facilitated bank credit of over ₹21.77 crore for 1,907 enterprises and utilised ₹20.26 crore from the Community Enterprise Fund.
The meeting was informed that 2.40 lakh rural women have already attained ‘Lakhpati Didi’ status, while the mission aims to create 3.64 lakh Lakhpati Didis by 2029.
Among those present were the Managing Director of J&K Bank, senior officers from the General Administration, School Education, Labour and Employment, and Rural Development departments, representatives of Kudumbashree National Resource Organisation (NRO), AP-MAS and officials of JKRLM.
