Financial management, savings and access to affordable credit are critical to livelihood protection and enable households to cope with crises and plan for the future. Jeevika is using the SHG approach to inculcate a culture of savings and provide financial services to the rural poor. There are 1,279 self help groups (SHGs) in project villages, 89 of which participate in an integrated social protection initiative; over 2,000 SHG leaders have been trained in group management and accounting.
The project is also using SHGs as a tool for micro-enterprise and collective enterprise development. SHGs offer members not only access to working capital but also a network to draw on for other resources, partnerships, cooperative ventures, suppliers, buyers and access to training and information. Project activities that provide regular employment, such as nursery plantations, vermi-compost production, or grain, seed and fodder banks, are being implemented through SHGs thereby providing members with a steady source of livelihood while also achieving village development goals.
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