By Our Reporter
SHILLONG, JULY 11: Meghalaya chief minister Dr Mukul Sangma today launched the state’s ambitious flagship programme “Livelihood Intervention and Facilitation of Entrepreneurship” (LIFE) programme for the entire state at Songsak in East Garo Hills and dedicated the project to the people.
The chief minister accompanied by School education and literacy minister Deborah Marak and a host of other dignitaries including parliamentary secretaries Cherak Momin, Brigady N Marak and Sengnam M Marak also inaugurated the new Songsak Kasturbha Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya (KGBV) School at St Francis Secondary School premises, Songask, East Garo Hills.
Speaking at the launch of the programme, Dr Sangma said that the programme of the state government is “most inclusive” unlike the central schemes, which are mostly meant for the “below poverty line”. He said that the government with its convergence of thoughts and actions has been making efforts to reach out to the people with different sustainable and livelihood programmes to empower and enable the people for economic prosperity.
“I have been designing programme to include everybody in the state of Meghalaya, so that each one of us benefits from the schemes”, he said.
He urged the people to form SHGs in their respective areas and under LIFE different activities would be started to ensure that people are able to generate income and eradicate poverty.
“We will ensure that people can generate income in their own backward by providing them assistance to do plantation and other income generating activities through different livelihood missions of the state”, he said.
He said that the main idea of LIFE was to ensure that there is reverse in trend, where people would migrate from urban areas to rural areas for taking up activities, which revolves on agriculture, horticulture and other allied sectors.
He said that there were rich natural resources in Garo hills and people should take advantage of the resources and judiciously used it for their prosperity.
On road connectivity at Songsak, he said that few years ago the road network in this area was very bad and since the road connective to Shillong and other parts of Meghalaya and neighbouring Assam has been improved the people should take benefit of the road network to engage in business and other entrepreneurial activities.
“To bridge the economic disparity and ensure progress, LIFE will be implemented across the state, so that there is inclusive development”, the chief minister asserted, while informing the people on the slew of initiatives taken up by the government to meet their aspirations.
Highlighting the government’s efforts to reach out to the people to ensure accelerated growth, Deborah Marak said, “The people of Garo hills has to partner with the project and reap its benefit”.
She urged the people to make the legislators accountable so that there is transparency in the state. “There is lack of development in different parts of Meghalaya. Different schemes were launched to reach out to the people but many have failed as beneficiaries have been left out”, Marak added, while urging the people to understand the programme of the government and receives its benefits.
Earlier, Commissioner and Secretary Community and Rural Development Department, Government of Meghalaya Sampath Kumar termed the launching of LIFE as an important milestone in taking forward the SHG movement in Meghalaya.
Kumar informed that the government envisages reducing poverty by building capacity and linking the SHGs to different financial institutions. “LIFE will give support to every block in the state and supplement the efforts of NRLM and encourage NGOs and village employment councils (VECs) to further organise women into SHGs”.
He told that Meghalaya has a total of over 4 lakh active job card holders and if one female member is encouraged to be part of the SHG, there will be a total of 40,000 SHGs. “We have a clear goal and vision to promote SHG movement in the state particularly in rural areas. SHGs is the only effective way to reduce large scale poverty and enhance livelihood and security for the people”, Kumar said.
Informing that LIFE will focus on capacity building, Kumar said that under the programme every 10 SHGs will be motivated to act like a bank and help each other. “Last year under MG-NREGA Megahalaya received 500 cr and if 10 per cent of wages are saved than around 50 cr can be saved each year”, Kumar said, which informing the people that government would be encouraging formation of thrift societies for credit flow to farmers and women members.
He enlightened the people that the governemnt has envisaged to build a strong SHG network in Meghalaya to push development activities at the grassroot level.
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). NRLM also promotes livelihood through women SHGs and their Federations. The programme lay its thrust on improving the livelihood of rural poor in a sustainable manner through the process of SHGs, Village organisation and Producers Groups.
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