SonChiraiya – Brand to Promote Products Made by Self Help Groups

Hello People!

Recently the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) launched ‘SonChiraiya’ – a brand and logo for marketing the urban Self-Help Group (SHG) products. 

We will talk about this new initiative, its importance to SHGs and other key facts. Read our blog to know all the relevant details.

Self Help Groups 

Self-help Groups (SHGs) are informal associations of people who come together to find ways to improve their living conditions. They are generally self-governed and peer-controlled.

People of similar economic and social backgrounds associate generally with the help of any NGO or government agency and try to resolve their issues, and improve their living conditions.

Villages face numerous problems related to poverty, illiteracy, lack of skills, lack of formal credit etc.  Individual efforts are insufficient to address these issues, which necessitate collaborative action. 

As a result, SHG has the potential to be a vehicle for change for the poor and marginalised. To foster self-employment and poverty alleviation, SHGs focus on the concept of “Self Help.”

SonChiraiya – Key Highlights

• Over 5.7 lakh SHGs have been formed across various States/ UTs with almost 60 lakh members. 
• Many of these SHGs are engaged in livelihood activities, producing goods such as handicrafts, textiles, toys, eatables and so on. The produced products were being sold primarily in local neighbourhood markets as there were barriers in achieving visibility and wide market access.
• To address these issues, MoHUA has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoUs) with e-commerce giants Amazon and Flipkart, with the purpose of encouraging women empowerment.
• This initiative is a significant step of increasing visibility and global access for the products made by urban SHG women. Under the initiative, a vast range of professionally packed and handcrafted ethnic products will be delivered to customers’ doorsteps around the world.
• Despite the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, this collaboration has successfully onboarded over 2,000 products from approximately 5,000 SHG members across 25 states/UTs on the e-Commerce Portal.
• SHGs have been provided with innovative online training methods to enable them to work efficiently on e-portals. In partnership with the e-portals and State Urban Livelihoods Missions, live demonstrations for account registration, pricing, packaging, and re-branding were also held.
• Over the past two decades of the Bank’s association, India’s SHG movement has evolved from small savings and credit groups that sought to empower poor rural women, into one of the world’s largest institutional platforms of the poor. 
• Today, 67 million Indian women are members of 6 million SHGs. The mission aims to reach 70-80 million poor households by 2025.

Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Antyodaya Yojana – National Urban Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NULM)

The Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Antyodaya Yojana (DAY-NULM) has been focusing on providing necessary skills and opportunity to urban poor women in order for them to establish sustainable micro-enterprises. The initiative assists women from low-income urban households in joining self-help groups and federations in order to provide a support structure for them.

MAIN HIGHLIGHTS OF THE SCHEME

Employment through Skill Training and Placement – An expenditure of Rs.15, 000 per person is allowed on training of urban poor which is Rs.18, 000 in North-East and J&K. Moreover, Training urban poor to meet the enormous demand from urban citizens by imparting market-oriented skills through City Livelihood Centers.

Social Mobilization and Institution Development – It will be done through formation of Self-Help Groups (SHG) for training members and hand holding, an initial support of 10, 000 is given for each group. Assistance of Rs.50, 000 is provided to Registered Area Level Federations.

Subsidy to urban poor – An interest subsidy of 5% – 7% for setting up individual micro-enterprises with a loan of up to 2 lakh and for group enterprises with a loan limit of up to Rs.10 lakhs.

Shelters for urban homeless – Cost of construction of shelters for urban homeless is fully funded under the Scheme.

Other means – Development of vendor markets and also the promotion of skills for the vendors through setting up infrastructure and special projects for the rag picker and differently abled etc.

To conclude, the new brand ‘Sonchiraiya’ will undoubtedly boost the prominence and global accessibility of products manufactured by urban SHG women. Many more SHG members are expected to be linked to a variety of professionally packed, hand-crafted ethnic items that will reach customers’ doorsteps around the world.

Keep reading on hranker.com for more updates.