Thiruvananthapuram, Sep 11: The Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Rural Livelihood Mission (DAY-NRLM) has mobilised over 10 crore women into 90 lakh self-help groups (SHGs) across the country, with many becoming first-generation entrepreneurs, a government official said here on Thursday.

Shailesh Kumar Singh, Secretary, Union Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD), highlighted the incubator programme’s role in advancing women-led rural enterprises.

At an event here, he cited the success of pilots in Assam, Bihar, West Bengal and Karnataka, and shared that Kerala, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, and several other states are scaling up with leading academic partners.

The Ministry, in collaboration with Kerala State Rural Livelihood Mission (Kudumbashree), organised a two-day National Workshop on Rural Enterprise Incubators under DAY-National Rural Livelihood Mission here.

Addressing the gathering, M.B. Rajesh, State Minister for Local Self-Government, underlined Kerala’s commitment to promoting women-led entrepreneurship through Kudumbashree and expressed confidence that the workshop would serve as a platform for collaboration and innovation to strengthen rural enterprise ecosystems.

Swati Sharma, Joint Secretary (RL), MoRD, government of India, emphasised the Ministry’s vision of scaling the incubator programme into a national platform for women-led rural entrepreneurship, saying that the workshop would generate actionable strategies and strong partnerships for ensuring its long-term success.

The workshop will help create an environment for the enterprises selected for the incubator project to grow.

Kudumbashree Executive Director, H. Dineshan, welcomed the participants. Assam Agricultural University Vice Chancellor Dr Bidyut C Dekha delivered the felicitation address.

According to the ministry, the workshop features panel discussions on mentoring, financing, technology, market access, and convergence, with the participation of eminent experts from academia, industry, and social enterprise networks, whose insights and contributions will help shape the scaling of rural enterprise incubation across states.

The two-day deliberations are expected to provide actionable strategies for scaling enterprise incubation across states and contribute to empowering women entrepreneurs under DAY-NRLM in line with the vision of Viksit Bharat at 2047.

(IANS)

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