Indira Mahila Shakti to drive Telangana’s rural economy: From solar power units to Night Bazaar

Telangana's Indira Mahila Shakti scheme empowers women entrepreneurs through financial support, training, and infrastructure development initiatives.

The State government’s efforts to uplift the lives of over 64 lakh women members of self-help groups (SHG) through one of its flagship schemes — Indira Mahila Shakti — seem to be paying off given the administration’s focused approach.

The scheme seeks to transform women into successful entrepreneurs through the Society for Elimination of Rural Poverty (SERP), an autonomous entity under the department of Rural Development, which addresses social, economic, and psychological barriers faced by disadvantaged communities, facilitating social mobilisation of women across 32 rural districts while enhancing productivity, skills, and resource utilisation.

Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy launched the Indira Mahila Shakti initiative on March 12, 2024, at the Mahila Sadassu event held at Parade Grounds, Secunderabad, which saw the participation of nearly one lakh SHG members from all over the State. The Chief Minister articulated his government’s vision to increase the SHG strength from 63 lakh to one crore and transform members into ‘crorepatis’ within five years. Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka announced the establishment of industrial parks exclusively for SHGs and introduced a ₹5 lakh life insurance cover for SHG members to ensure financial security to their families.

To empower SHG members, the government plans to disburse ₹1 lakh crore through bank linkages and Stree Nidhi over five years, targeting the inclusion of 25,000 village organisations (VOs) and area-level federations (ALFs), covering 5,000 every year.

Following this decision ₹12,070.89 crore has been disbursed to 1,75,820 SHGs under the bank linkage programme, achieving 60% of the annual target of ₹20,000.39 crore for the 2024–25 financial year, officials said. Since December 2023, loans worth ₹21,466 crore have been extended to SHGs, while ₹3,644 crore financed 2,01,857 micro-enterprises over the past year. The ‘Loan Bima’ and ‘Pramada Bima’ insurance schemes have provided coverage to SHG members, with 1,730 claims under Loan Bima and 156 under Pramada Bima being processed, settling ₹10.38 crore and ₹15.55 crore, respectively, according to the officials.

Under the Indira Mahila Shakti initiative, several new programmes have been launched. A ₹9 crore Night Bazaar with 106 shops is under development at Shilparamam, Hitech City, Hyderabad, to promote rural SHG products.

Scheduled to open on December 5, 2024, it will serve as a platform for SHG products including handicrafts, and handlooms, fostering direct interaction between rural producers and urban consumers. Rotational allocation of shops will ensure equal opportunities.