The State Cabinet on Wednesday approved 32 proposals including extension of the Mission Shakti scheme for another period of five years from financial year 2022-23 to 2026-27 with a budgetary allocation of nearly Rs.5000 Crore.
Briefing about the decision taken at the Cabinet meeting, Chief Secretary Suresh Chandra Mahapatra said Mission Shakti is synonymous with the empowerment story of lakhs of women across the State of Odisha.
Introduced in 2001 as an initiative to form Self Help Groups (SHGs), it has grown organically and developed into one of the most successful women’s empowerment programmes, he said.
In just two decades, Mission Shakti has been able to organise 70 lakh women, into more than 6.02 lakh SHGs. Last year, in a historic step, the Government of Odisha set up a dedicated Department of Mission Shakti to bring synergy across all the SHG-centric government initiatives, deepening the engagement of lakhs of women at the grassroots levels & ensuring last-mile delivery of sustainable livelihood opportunities to the women SHGs.
A pioneering initiative in Odisha has also been to enable Government Departments to source goods and services worth Rs 5000 crore from SHGs in the next five years.
Today in the Cabinet meeting, the scheme Mission Shakti under the Department of Mission Shakti has been approved for a duration of five years (from FY 2022-23 to FY 2026-27) with an approved budgetary allocation of Rs 4973.39 crore, said Mr.Mahapatra.
The objectives are; Creation of conducive environment for expansion of self-help movement in rural & urban areas; strengthening of SHGs and federations across the state; strengthening livelihood initiatives; deepening financial inclusion making sure more SHGs get loans; provisioning of infrastructure for SHGs & federations – Mission Shakti Gruha, Block Mission Shakti Bhawan, District Mission Shakti Bhawan; Marketing support – Mission Shakti Bazaars & e-commerce platform.
During the next five years, many milestones have been targeted to be achieved under the Mission Shakti scheme, including Rs 50,000 crore bank credit to SHGs, interest subvention of more than Rs 1200 crore to SHGs, more than 500 Mission Shakti Bazaars and outlets to be set up across the state. Around 35 to 40 lakh SHG members to be trained under livelihood initiatives and capacity building programmes.
Each district, block, panchayat and urban ward have Mission Shakti Gruhas/ Bhawans. Government business of more than Rs 6,600 crore to be provided to Mission Shakti SHGs & their Federation in convergence with different Government departments.
Dedicated to the accelerated growth in socioeconomic empowerment of the women-led self-help groups, this historic decision will further strengthen the Silent Revolution of Mission Shakti across rural and urban areas of the state.