Home » Ministry of Rural Development organizes ‘Gender Samwaad’

What is the news :

Third edition of ‘Gender Samwaad’ organised by the Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Rural Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NRLM), Ministry of Rural Development on the 11^thof March 2022.
Over 3000 State Mission staff and Self-Help Group (SHG) members logged in from 34 states to attend an event.

About the event :

It is a national virtual initiative under the DAY-NRLM to generate greater awareness on the mission’s interventions across the country with a gender lens.
The theme for this edition was ‘Promotion of food and nutrition security through women’s collectives’.
The event was organized as a part of Ministry’s Iconic Week celebration theme ‘Naye Bharat ki Naari’ under Amrit Mahotsava.
The event enabled National and State Rural Livelihoods Missions (SRLM) to listen to voices from SHG women and for SRLMs to share and learn from best practices.
The main objective of the Gender Samvaad event was to create awareness of gender-related interventions under the DAY-NRLM.

About Gender Samvaad:

With over 60 million women mobilised to be part of one of India’s largest livelihoods programme, the Deendayal Antayodaya Yojana-National Rural Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NRLM) holds great promise for advancing women’s socio-economic empowerment by organising them into self-help groups (SHGs) and federations of the rural poor.
Not only are these platforms facili tating financial opportunities and livelihood support services for women, but they have also become an extended arm of governance to demand accountability from and build linkages with mainstream institutions.
They also hold stories of hundreds and thousands of women – stories of hope, resilience, raising voice, getting redress, and many best practices on how institutions of poor women can help them ensure access to their rights and entitlements.

Launch of Gender Samvaad, April 16, 2021 ( 1^st edition)

As part of the ongoing Amrut Mahotsav to celebrate the 75th Anniversary of Indian Independence, Gender Samvaad was launched on April 16, 2021 with around 1400 participants including rural women, state representatives, CSOs and academia from across India.
The event was attended by senior officials of the Ministry comprising Shri. Nagendra Nath Sinha, Secretary, Ministry of Rural Development; Smt. Alka Upadhyaya, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Rural Development; and Joint Secretary, NRLM, Smt. Nita Kejrewal. Community resource persons, who are women SHG members from various states, were also invited to share their experience of overcoming several barriers to improve their lives and livelihoods. The theme for the inaugural session was “Gender Transformative Rural Livelihoods”.

Gender Samvaad, second dialogue, July 2, 2021( 2^nd edition)

The second Gender Samvaad was held on June 2, 2021 on the topic :Ensuring an inclusive response and recovery from COVID:Best practices from SRLMs.
The event focused on the challenges posed by the second wave of the pandemic and the extent to which States have been able to respond to these by leveraging the collective potential and solidarity of women’s groups.
The dialogue showcased best practices from the states in responding to the emerging needs ranging from access to health and other services, information related to COVID-19, access to food, and opportunities for work.
The online event brought together the voices of state rural livelihood mission officials together with those of women affected by the pandemic.
The focus states in the second dialogue were Bihar, Kerala and Meghalaya, talking about how they have been ensuring food security for communities and access to health information across all age groups. The second dialogue was attended by more than 2400 participants form across the states.

DAY-NRLM (Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana – National Rural Livelihood Mission)

About the Scheme

In spite of rapid growth of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in India, a large rural population of the country still lives below poverty line (BPL).
Different studies estimated the rate of rural poverty at different levels. In spite of the numerous efforts, the rural poverty continues to be a major challenge to the Government at all levels.
To address the challenge of rural poverty, the Ministry of Rural Development conceived a mission mode scheme titled as National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM) in the year 2010.
NRLM was renamed as DAY-NRLM (Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana – National Rural Livelihood Mission) with effect from March 29, 2016.
It is a centrally sponsored scheme and the Central and State Governments jointly fund the projects.

Implementation :

The implementation responsibility of the Mission is vested with State Rural Livelihood Missions (Special Purpose Vehicles).
At the district level, a District Mission Management Unit (DMMU) is responsible for planning and implementation, but under the overall control of the district administration.
At the block level, a Block Mission Management Unit implements the Mission activities.
The Mission is implemented in a phased but intensive manner, taking up certain number of blocks in each year.
The Mission is expected to saturate mobilization of all rural poor households by 2023-24.
The Department of Rural Development in the Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India (GoI) has the overall responsibility of policy formulation, monitoring and evaluation of the programme and for release of funds.

Objective of the Scheme

The objective of the Mission is to promote sustainable livelihoods for the poor such that they come out of poverty.
The institutions of the poor are intended to facilitate
access to formal credit
support for diversification and strengthening of livelihoods
access to entitlements and public services.

Key Features of the Scheme

One member (preferably a woman) from each rural poor household would be brought under the Self Help Group (SHG) network.
Women SHG groups would have bank-linkage arrangements.
SHGs would be federated at village level and higher levels to provide space, voice and resources and to reduce dependence on external agencies.