Lakhs of women’s self-help groups set up under the National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM) in the country, will be now part of e-commerce.
The Ministry of Rural Development which runs the Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-NRLM today signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Flipkart, India’s homegrown e-commerce marketplace, for the purpose.
The partnership is aligned with the DAY-NRLM’s goal of strengthening the capabilities of rural communities for self-employment and entrepreneurship.
In the presence of Minister of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj Giriraj Singh and Minister of State for Rural Development Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti, the MoU was signed by Joint Secretary (RL), DAY-NRLM Charanjit Singh, and Flipkart’s Chief Corporate Affairs Officer Rajneesh Kumar.
Giriraj Singh said, “SHGs are the backbone of the rural economy and we are targeting to enhance their annual income to at least Rs 1 lakh. We are identifying and collaborating with all possible partners who can contribute to this cause.”
The partnership between DAY NRLM and Flipkart will help in the process and strengthen the Atmanirbhar Bharat vision, he said. Rural products from SHGs have huge potential for acceptance among the masses in India and abroad and the e-commerce platform will prove to be an effective tool to harness it.
Singh said that the MoU will enable rural women to sell their products to more than 10 crores of Flipkart’s customers.
This MoU is a part of the Flipkart Samarth program and aims to provide skilled, yet under-served communities of craftsmen, weavers, and artisans with national market access.
The DAY-NRLM programme, with its outreach in 6768 blocks of 706 districts across all 28 States and six UTs has 7.84 crore women mobilized into more than 71 lakh SHGs, thus empowering poor rural women.