Women SHGs Fight Against Covid-19

Women members of around 63 lakh Self Help Groups (SHGs) across the country formed under the Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Rural Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NRLM), Ministry of Rural Development are contributing in every possible way to contain the spread of Covid-19.

All State Rural Livelihoods Missions (SRLMs) have been made aware of the various aspects of the disease including the need to maintain personal hygiene, social distancing etc. through Audio Visual (AV) Information, Education and Communication (IEC) material and advisories.
SRLMs are using all the information to ensure that the correct message is communicated to the community by various means like telephone calls, wall writings, pamphlets/fliers, social media, etc.
Important Interventions by SRLMs:
- Bihar SRLM (JEEViKA):
  - Utilizing Mobile Vaani Platform to spread awareness among the community through voice messages and answering queries on Covid-19.
  - Mobile Vaani (MV) is a mobile-based voice media platform for underserved areas in India whereby users generate content in their own local dialect through an Interactive Voice Response System (IVRS).
- Uttar Pradesh SRLM (Prerna):
  - Use of rangolis and markings such as lines and circles to re-emphasise the need for 'social distancing'.
  - Wall paintings to spread key messages about Covid prevention.
- Jharkhand SRML:
  - Initiated Didi helpline, which helps migrant labourers by providing them verified information 24 hours.
- Kerala SRML:
  - Dispelling the widespread fake news causing panic through its WhatsApp groups and propagating only the right information.

It was launched by the Ministry of Rural Development in 2011.
It aims at creating efficient and effective institutional platforms for the rural poor enabling them to increase household income through sustainable livelihood enhancements and improved access to financial services.
NRLM has set out with an agenda to cover 7 crore rural poor households, across 600 districts, 6000 blocks, 2.5 lakh Gram Panchayats and 6 lakh villages in the country through self-managed SHGs and institutions and support them for livelihoods collectives in a period of 8-10 years.
Salient Features:
- It lays special emphasis on targeting the poorest of the poor and the most vulnerable communities (i.e. Antyodaya) and their financial inclusion.
- Innovative projects under National Rural Economic Transformation Project (NRETP) to pilot alternate channels of financial inclusion, creating value chains around rural products, introduce innovative models in livelihoods promotion and access to finance and scale-up initiatives on digital finance and livelihood interventions.
- DAY-NRLM provides for mutually beneficial working relationships and formal platforms for consultations between Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) and Community Based Organizations (CBOs).
- NRLM has also developed an activity map to facilitate convergence in different areas of interventions where NRLM institutions and PRIs could work together which has been disseminated to all SRLMs.

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