Chief Secretary Atal Dulloo chaired a high-level meeting to review the performance of the Jammu & Kashmir National Rural Livelihoods Mission (NRLM), with a focus on empowering nearly 7 lakh rural women by transforming them into successful entrepreneurs.
Dulloo emphasized the need for intensified social mobilization and capacity-building to ignite a movement of self-reliance. He directed the registration of Cluster Level Federations (CLFs) under the Cooperative Societies Act to strengthen the institutional structure.
He further instructed the NRLM to enhance credit linkages, aiming for 75,000 SHG credit connections by October, including bridging an existing gap of 16,000. Recognizing that 3 lakh SHG members are literate, he directed their upskilling via Daksh Kisan Courses and other training platforms like Mission YUVA and the Holistic Agriculture Development Programme (HADP).
The Chief Secretary also pushed for optimum use and expansion of Community Managed Training Centres (CMTCs) in all 20 districts and leveraging institutions like J&K Bank and NABARD for technical training.
Dulloo advised enrolling all SHG members under social security schemes (PMSBY/PMJJBY) and using the network to raise awareness during an upcoming UT-wide campaign. He also suggested engaging SHG members as Krishi Sakhis, Pashu Sakhis, and Banking Correspondents to increase livelihood and outreach in rural regions.
Secretary RDD Aijaz Assad shared that J&K NRLM has formed 94,000 SHGs covering 7.55 lakh households, earning top rankings nationally in CLF and VO profiling.
MD NRLM Shubhra Sharma highlighted that over 1.84 lakh women have already become ‘Lakhpati Didis’ and a total of 2.3 lakh are expected to reach that milestone by the end of this month.
Other achievements noted include 123% coverage under MKSP, 100% target achievement in SVEP and MED, and 99.3% fund utilization. All CEF funds have been transferred to rural entrepreneurs, signaling strong implementation performance.
The meeting concluded with a roadmap for expanding entrepreneurship, social security, and financial independence for rural women across J&K.