Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare and Rural Development Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan today chaired a high-level meeting in Mumbai to review Self-Help Group-bank linkages and individual enterprise financing under the Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Rural Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NRLM). Addressing the meeting, Union Minister Mr. Chouhan said women’s empowerment was a fundamental prerequisite for building a developed India. He said that the Prime Minister had reiterated the commitment to increase the number of Lakhpati Didi from three crore to six crore.
The meeting laid out a concrete roadmap for ensuring faster, adequate and accessible credit for women entrepreneurs, while also directing the setting up of a helpline to address difficulties faced by SHG members in accessing bank loans. SHG women, bankers, officials of State Rural Livelihood Missions, representatives of the Reserve Bank of India, National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development and other stakeholders participated in the meeting and held detailed discussions on bottlenecks in the loan process, regional disparities and possible solutions.
