WILLIAMNAGAR: The government has launched a core flagship programme called LIFE or Livelihood Intervention and Facilitation Entrepreneurship, which aims to address the issue of poverty and boost the economic power of women in the rural areas by mobilising them into Self Help Groups (SHGs) and encouraging savings and inter-loaning.
Chief Minister Mukul Sangma launched the State wide programme LIFE from Songsak in East Garo Hills before a large crowd of women SHGs from the Garo Hills region on Tuesday.
Speaking in the presence of a host of MLAs including Education Minister Deborah C Marak and top bureaucrats of the State, the chief minister termed the new programme of his government as the “most inclusive”.
“Many programmes of the Central Government are not inclusive as there are certain criteria such as the requirement to be Below Poverty Line. Any programme that is exclusive in one form or the other will always deprive someone,” said Sangma.
He said that LIFE is a livelihood programme at the village level and 6800 villages in the State will be covered to form Self Help Groups.
“As the LIFE programme expands to the nook and corner of the rural areas of the state, a transformation will take place in the quality of life and we will witness a reverse migration in which people living in towns and cities would head back to villages to live their lives,” said Mukul Sangma.
He called upon the people to encourage the formation of SHGs in their respective villages because different activities would be initiated through LIFE to generate income and eradicate poverty and people would get more involved in agriculture, horticulture and other allied sectors.
“Garo Hills is blessed with a very rich soil and we should take full advantage of this gift,” said the chief minister.
He announced that a special scheme is currently being prepared to encourage women SHGs to start banks in the rural areas that will be run by the people themselves.
“LIFE will show a new road for our children,” said Mukul Sangma.
Meghalaya education minister Deborah C Marak, while taking part in the launch of the programme said that the people of the state need to partner with the new mission to reap its benefits.
LIFE aims to bring all the poor and vulnerable women into the SHGs movement, by emphasizing on reviving the inactive; functional ones and include them within the ongoing LIFE project. The programme will be implemented in the line with National Rural Livelihoods Mission (NRLM) in the remaining non – NRLM blocks with an objective to support the community through the SHGs formation.
It will also motivate and encourage every woman from every household under NREGA job cardholders and form SHGs. The Village Employment Council (VECs) functionaries are being used to assists the NGO in social mobilization and prepare them for transition into NRLM, and strengthen the existing SHGs.
LIFE is a programme of the Meghalaya State Rural Livelihood Society (MSRLS), an agency of the Community and Rural Development department, Government of Meghalaya implementing the flagship programme of the Government of India – National Rural Livelihoods Mission (NRLM).
