Social capital : Developing true wealth....

Social capital : Developing true wealth

The last few days I have been tweeting a lot on variety of subjects thanks to the work updates from the field. I've always been astounded by the incredible entrepreneurship skills of women self help groups. Once believed to be only making papad and pickles they have now steered into a variety of businesses including solar bulbs manufactured in one of the remotest village in Gondiya district. While I can never fall short of words to appreciate the phenomenal work being done by the self help groups, leading to their steady growth, I have been witness to their rise from the substratum. Their work as silent warriors during Covid 19 has made me respect them all the more. They have made and sold face masks worth Rs. 11 crores, vegetables and fruits worth Rs.25 crores, acted as channels for agriculture and done collective procurement of seeds and fertilizers worth Rs. 60 crores, have channelised Rs 65 crores as Banking correspondents, made over 92000 nutri gardens. Over and above all this they have attended digital trainings on Covid 19 to create awareness across villages for protection against Covid 19.

Despite doing all this and more, I feel amazed at the different kinds of responses I receive from different people. Some wonder at the entrepreneurial skills of the women, some wonder at their oratory skills and to some their growth is mere numerics. Most fail to see their slow and steady growth as social capital.
One has to look deeply into the journey of their lives to feel the pulse of the movement which is now gaining momentum and bearing the fruits of a strong foundation.
While administration is replete with introduction of several schemes for the development of the poor ever since we became independent, the National Rural Livelihoods Mission - NRLM stands apart.
Standing tall on the history of the Integrated Rural Development Program - IRDP and the Swarna Jayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana- SGSY building a network of strong community institutions is the very basis of NRLM. It essentially dwells on the belief that the poor have innate capabilities and a strong desire to come out of poverty. They are entrepreneurial and all that they need is strengthening their capabilities to generate meaningful livelihoods and enable them to come out of poverty.
NRLM is the world's largest program for poverty alleviation and has been created to reduce poverty by enabling the poor with gainful self- employment or skilled wage employment opportunities leading to sustainable livelihoods through a strong network of institutions of the poor.
The dedicated teams at block, district and state level and the community cadre have played a catalytic role in social mobilization, institution building and the general empowerment of the women and their households. Together they gave the necessary support through training and capacity building which has led to knowledge dissemination and has built their skills.

One can easily compare NRLM to a strong ladder with several steps one leading to the other. Social inclsion is the first rung and the pyramidical structure of SHGs, village organizations and cluster level federations lay the foundation of self-reliant and self- dependent community. Financial Inclusion enables access to credit and continuous capacity building facilitates access to sustainable livelihoods which is topped by providing marketing support. The program ensures inclusion of the poorest through participatory inclusion of the poor while maintaining transparency and accountability of all processes and institutions.
The programme also ensures ownership of the institutions by making the poor play a key role in planning, implementation, and, monitoring. The programme ensures that access to
entitlements and public services are enabled through convergence.
The continued capacity building enables them to chart their growth through a basket of agricultural practices which enhance their productivity. Allied activities in animal husbandry like poultry and goat farming or handlooms and handicrafts supplement their agricultural income. Additionally, they and the young children between the age of 18 and 35 are provided skills for self-employment through RSETIs or wage employment through DDUGY skilling programme. Most importantly, financial support of Rs. 7900 Crore through bank linkages has also been facilitated to implement and sustain the initiatives under Maharashtra SRLM.

NRLM is thus a comprehensive program for self growth leading to creation of resonant social capital by way of well-developed communities it is not surprising to see their success as harbingers in e-governace projects like Asmita where SHGs function as retailers through a mobile app and have sold Asmita and Asmita Plus sanitary napkins worth over Rs.4 crores solely through digital platform. Added to it they are retiailers for multinational companies like Himalaya Drug company, Unilever, Godrej etc through the Asmita Bazaar. Now their products are also availale online through Amazon.
The mission continues to strengthen the community institutions formed not for the sake of any number game but to transform lives through livelihoods. The foundation of the mission is to facilitate opportunities for the vulnerable and capacitate them or make them “saksham” in its true sense. I may have witnessed a growth in my tenure from one lakh SHGs to now nearly 5 lakhs, but what is encouraging is the empowerment of the cadre and through them all the SHGs who are contributing to the transformation of rural economy of the state and the country. Their businesses have garnered capital gains of Rs.1500 Crore and developing the state as well as country to become resilient in every form. Kofi Annan has said that, " There is no tool for development more effective than the empowerment of women." MSRLM symbolises just that!