The Centre wants women in rural livelihood programmes to move beyond taking part in self-help groups to leading the economic institutions around them, Rural Development Secretary Rohit Kansal said at the seventh edition of Gender Samvaad in New Delhi on 11 September.
Kansal said self-help groups, which now cover more than 10 crore women, have grown into a major women-led movement, but the next phase should strengthen their role as producers, entrepreneurs, decision-makers and leaders. For that to happen, he said, women need stronger access to resources, markets and technology, along with greater ownership of assets.
The event, themed Participation to Leadership: Enhancing Women’s Agency in Livelihoods, was organised by the Ministry of Rural Development’s DAY-NRLM alongside the Institute for What Works to Advance Gender Equality (IWWAGE). According to a ministry release, it drew more than six lakh stakeholders, including SHG women, State Rural Livelihoods Mission staff, policymakers and gender experts. Kansal noted the platform had grown from 1,400 participants in April 2021 to nearly six lakh in this edition.
He pointed to state-level moves already pushing in this direction: Maharashtra’s Women Farmers’ Empowerment Bill, which recognises women farmers even without formal land titles; the Bhubaneswar Declaration in Odisha on women’s land rights and representation in agricultural institutions; and Andhra Pradesh’s RySS natural-farming model driven by women SHGs. He also cited more than 3.46 crore Lakhpati Didi now earning over ₹1 lakh a year, saying the milestone had lifted aspirations among rural women.
“Gender integration under DAY-NRLM has evolved from mobilisation towards institutionalising gender as a mainstream concern,” said Amit Shukla, Joint Secretary, Rural Livelihoods, adding that the next focus would be on strengthening collective economic institutions such as clusters and producer bodies.
The dialogue also featured women who had made that jump. Niharika Bhuyan from Sonitpur, Assam, moved from SHG member to a leadership role in a women-led Farmer Producer Company, while Kirti Tai Deshmukh from Akola, Maharashtra, went from homemaker to entrepreneur through SHG training and access to government schemes. The seventh Gender Samvaad was aligned with the UN International Year of Women Farmers 2026.
The direction of travel matters for anyone working on rural workforce and livelihoods: the stated goal is to graduate SHG members from small-scale livelihood activity into scalable enterprises and formal leadership positions within rural economic institutions.
