From Mud Houses To Micro-Enterprises: UP Rural Women Rewrite Their Future Under NRLM

Prayagraj: The Yogi government is continuously striving to make women self-reliant, and this is leading to visible changes in rural areas. The lives of women who have joined the 'Grameen Ajeevika Mission' are changing.

Using the loan facilities provided by the NRLM (National Rural Livelihood Mission), housewives are becoming entrepreneurs and empowering other women in their villages.

In Uttar Pradesh, housewives associated with women's Self-Help Groups are writing a new chapter of self-reliance and entrepreneurship.

Rita Devi, a rural woman from Fatehpur district in the Prayagraj division, is one of them. She, a resident of Dagaraiya village in Malwa development block, says, "her husband is a marginal farmer. They lived in a kaccha (mud) house, and somehow managed to make ends meet with great difficulty".

One day, she learned about the Grameen Ajeevika Mission from local women. Following this, in 2017, she formed the 'Jai Santoshi Maa Women's Self-Help Group' with 10 other women.

Through the group, she took a loan of Rs. 140,000 from the CCL fund and started fish farming in the village. Today, she has 3 fish farming tanks from which she earns Rs. 15,000 to 20,000 every month.

Rita says, "she started some other businesses with this money. First, she opened a beauty parlor, which further increased her income. Today, she has built her own pucca (concrete) house and sent her two children to Mumbai for their studies".

The Grameen Ajeevika Mission has brought about a significant change in the lives of rural women.

Mukesh Kumar Fatehpur Deputy Commissioner NRLM (Self-Employment) explains, so far, 18,344 women's Self-Help Groups have been formed in the district under the NRLM (National Rural Livelihoods Mission).

These groups have covered 195,000 families. These empowered women have also inspired other women, leading to the rapid expansion of this self-reliance movement.

Among these empowered women is Rita Devi, who started her self-employment venture with three fish farming tanks and is now starting a mushroom cultivation project with 12 other women.