For SHGs of Odisha: A New Digital Dawn

At NXTIdea, Women empowerment is not a slogan, but a visible reality. The reality would renovate the SHGs to the next levels of digital units.

With the digital hype and implementation in all sectors, the SHGs should not fall behind. The Government of Odisha led by the Hon’ble Chief Minister has taken remarkable and commendable steps to uplift rural women to the next level of independent existence and financial freedom.

The singular objective of Mission Shakti by the Government of Odisha was not to place money in the hands of women and make them self-sufficient, but to transform these women into entrepreneurs to make their marks on the global ecosystem.

Self- Help Groups (SHGs) play a vital role in poverty eradication in Indian villages. A growing number of poor women in different areas of India are members of Self Help Groups and they actively occupy in savings and credit, as well as activities like income creation, natural resources management, literacy, child care, etc. The digitization of these SHGs is a major issue to bring these to the national limelight.

Since its inception, the performance of the self-help group program in the area of rural development and women’s empowerment has been admirable. But, although the program is being implemented in many parts of Odisha, its success has been patchy and not fully realized by the general public. NXTIdea, an innovative business growth platform, has researched through polls, personal meets, and surveys, concluded the digital needs into their work models and process formalities.

The SHG has given individuality, access to information, and bargaining power to the women’s community. Some benefits to group members include: ·

• It is the platform for poor women to discuss and solve their financial problems; · Serving members to manage cash deficits preserve food intake and overcome emergencies, leading to improvement in the quality and productivity of their resources;
• It keeps its members away from money lenders, particularly to meet food and health emergencies; · It improves the investment capabilities, wealth creation, and risk-bearing capabilities and also branches out their occupations; ·
• It promotes leadership qualities among its members; ·
• Fostering women, even from conservative communities and regions, to interact with outsiders, particularly officials, including men; and ·
• Establishing the linkage between banks and marginalized citizens, especially women. An economically poor individual gains strength as part of a group. Besides, financing through SHGs reduces transaction costs for both lenders and borrowers. While lenders have to handle only a single SHG account instead of a large number of small-sized individual accounts, borrowers as part of an SHG cut down expenses on travel (to & from the branch and other places) for completing paperwork and on the loss of workdays in canvassing for loans.

Keeping in view the digital requirements, the Founder of NXTIdea, Mr. Lingaraj Behura has assured the women entrepreneurs of the state and the SHGs to extend all digital marketplaces and online resources to facilitate online transactions in a secure environment. This would facilitate these units to stride through the uncertain market needs and create new possibilities for revenue generation.

Interested SHG members, can directly connect with #NXTIdea at https://www.nxtidea.com/contacts/

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