Promote livelihoods of SHGs under SFURTI Scheme: Dr Sehrish to officials

Srinagar, Oct 20: Mission Director Jammu & Kashmir Rural Livelihoods Mission (JKRLM), Dr. Syed Sehrish Asgar Wednesday chaired a meeting to review block wise progress achieved under Rural livelihood Mission in Anantnag district.
The meeting was attended by Riyaz Ahmad Beigh, Additional Mission Director, Kashmir; State Project Managers RLM; District Programme Managers; Block Programme Managers; Block Coordinators; MIS Assistants of District Anantnag and other officials of the Mission in person and through video conferencing.
On the occasion Dr Sehrish Asgar impressed upon the officials to aggregate and register the existing SHG members who are Artisans under Scheme of Fund for Regeneration of Traditional Industries (SFURTI) as it will facilitate artisans by creating Common facility Centers (CFCs) ,Raw Material Bank (RMB), and skill & design development trainings. She further asked them to identify the suitable locations for establishment of SFURTI unit and all the necessary support for implementation of SFURTI will be provided by the Mission in collaboration with the District Administration.
Adding further Dr Sehrish said that under convergence with various departments, the Self Help Group (SHG) members must establish their livelihoods both in Farm Sector and Non-Farm Sectors. Since there is huge potential of dairy in the district, the BPMs were directed to enroll SHG members under Farmer producer organizations (FPOs) and initiate group activities for forward linkages and take their business to a higher level.
The Mission director directed the officials to orient the SHG members on management of Custom Hiring Centers (CHCs) in terms of revenue management, equipment management, etc. The equipment at the CHCs should be procured in order to reduce the drudgery of the women farmers as well as expedite the laborious work. In addition the equipment at the CHC should be as per the local topography of the area to maximize the impact of CHCs, she added.
Dr Sehrish further stressed upon the BPMs, to develop strategies for saturation of rural households in time bound manner and enroll women into the fold of SHGs to avail the benefits of the scheme and the existing Community based organizations (CBOs)should be utilized for federating the left over rural Households.
While informing the meeting about progress of Blocks, the officials apprised that 35936 rural women have been federated into 4338 SHGs and an amount of Rs 29.03 crores had been provided to the SHGs as capitalization from the Mission.
It was given out that in addition, the SHGs have been credit linked with the Banks to the tune of Rs 44.15 crores. The SHG members have invested the amount in different livelihoods like, Fishponds, Aromatic products, Mushroom cultivation, poultry farms, Dairy units, handicrafts and handloom besides under convergence various livelihood initiatives have been successfully initiated with other line departments.