- Ministry of Rural Development(MoRD) has decided to focus on select 3-5 lakh women Self Help Groups(SHGs) with a view to convert their nano enterprises into micro enterprises.
- This Initiative is taken up as part of Aajeevika-National Rural Livelihood Mission(NRLM).
- The NRLM mission aims to organize the rural poor women into SHGs and continuously nurture and support them to take economic activities till they attain appreciable increase in income over a period of time.This will help them to improve their quality of life and come out of poverty.
- Since 2011-12,SHGs have been entitled to get up to Rs 10 lakh as loan without collateral over a period of six to eight years.
- Further,the government is also planning to bring more women SHGs into micro and small enterprises through,bank loans, registration on government e-market portals and similar e-commerce portals such as Amazon.
- The Union Budget 2018-19 has also substantially increased funding to NRLM by 60% and offers Rs 1 lakh MUDRA loan to one woman in each of the SHGs with a view to make them more self-reliant and increase their incomes.
