In a significant stride towards strengthening the Jammu & Kashmir Rural Livelihoods Mission (JKRLM), Chief Secretary Atal Dulloo, chaired a high level meeting with representatives of renowned national organizations, Kudumbashree National Resource Organization (NRO) and Organisation for Management of Poverty and Livelihood Improvement Society (OMPLIS).
The agenda centered around leveraging national expertise for institutional support, training and capacity building of Self Help Groups (SHGs) across the Union Territory. The meeting besides Principal Secretary, APD; Principal Secretary, Finance; Secretary, RDD; Secretary, Cooperatives; MD, JKRLM was attended by other concerned officers of the department.
The Chief Secretary acknowledged the transformative role of both the organisations in their respective geographies and invited them to extend their human resources and technical know-how to the UT.
He emphasized the need for robust training of JKRLM staff and a strategic realignment of the mission to fully realize its potential in empowering women and alleviating poverty across the rural areas of the UT.
A detailed presentation by OMPLIS shed light on their impactful journey since inception in 1995, outlining how the organization has enabled thousands of women to break free from poverty. Their model, deeply rooted in financial empowerment and collective savings, has generated Rs 73 crore in savings and earned Rs 58 crore in interest for SHG members.
Notably, loans amounting Rs 478 crore, along with Rs 4.18 crore as Community Investment Funds (CIF) and Rs 15.28 crore as soft loans, have uplifted over 6,500 families. In a landmark decision, OMPLIS agreed to adopt one block each in Jammu and Kashmir on a pilot basis.
The initiative will support the training programs for the field staff, strengthen Cluster Model Training Centres (CMTCs) and provide mentorship to SHG members to channel their livelihoods towards high impact outcomes.
Kudumbashree NRO, known for its pioneering community-led models across 22 States and UTs, presented a tailored plan to support JKRLM through scalable, market-linked initiatives. Their proposal emphasized on establishing Community-Based Marketing Aggregator Models to bridge SHGs with mainstream markets and e-commerce platforms besides extending support for branding, packaging and digital marketing of farm and non-farm products made by these SHGs.
They further proposed setting up of community-run food service enterprises, inspired by their India Food Court model, to integrate rural livelihoods with tourism and hospitality sectors in J&K.
The overall implementation strategy involves cloud-based, three-tier monitoring system to track outcomes and ensure accountability besides developing 20 model enterprises in the first year and creating a comprehensive operational manual with localized training modules for JKRLM staff and cadres.
The proposals by both the organizations received an encouraging response from the Chief Secretary, who underlined the UT Government’s commitment towards building resilient, self-sustained rural communities through structured collaboration and innovation rooted in empowerment, enterprise and experience-driven transformation of this livelihood mission across the UT.