Bhubaneswar: Today, Mission Shakti has become an identity for more than 70 lakh women of Odisha who have become self reliant and carry the baton of women empowerment in the country. Nurtured from the nascent stage more than a decade back, the members of the largest women self help groups under the aegis of Mission Shakti, have today become a formidable force in the economy of the state and contributing to the development of the family and the society as a whole. The Self Help Groups have seen a tremendous growth in terms of their numbers, number of members and also in terms of their transactions and turnovers.
There have also been many developments in their functioning, product diversification, usage of modern facilities and technologies and using management strategies to make them at par with others. Keeping in view the future prospects and to make them more future resilient, there is a need to adopt new strategies. Balasore District, which has been an integral part of the Mission Shakti Initiative from the beginning, has come up with a unique idea that promises to make the SHG movement more powerful and help propel women empowerment.
The Balasore District Administration has come up with a unique strategy named One GP One Product for the Mission Shakti Women Self Help Groups. The initiative will define geographically bounded concentration of similar, related or complementary productive enterprises with shared infrastructure, markets and services and with common opportunities. This initiative aims to standardize the end product, take advantage of large scale production, usage of shared infrastructure and marketing synergies.
The activity of the OGOP will be from the Farm based, Off farm, Forest based or non-farm sectors. The OGOP calls for establishment of processing units coming under these sectors using the latest technologies and equipment, exploring convergence of schemes from the different schemes of concerned line Departments in convergence mode.
As the name suggests – One GP One Product, the aim is to develop a unique product in a particular Gram Panchayat. The thrust will be on developing the available infrastructure to produce the identified product and its associated requirements in the Panchayat so that maximum SHGs will be working for a more localized and shared aim.
According to the SOP prepared by the administration, the OGOP Initiative will be taken up within the same GP, preferably in the village, where the infrastructure, like Mission Shakti Gruha or the unutilised usable Government buildings or school buildings are available at the same place, and are to be tagged with the concerned PG/SHG/GPLF for the purpose. In case of non availability of the above facilities, the concerned PG/SHG/GPLF can be run the processing unit in rented premises.
Women Self Help Groups mapped under the NRLM/MS portal and involved/interested for the processing activities will be selected in the Panchayats to manage the product manufacturing. Any one activity can be taken up the selected SHG from any of the identified sectors based on the availabilities of raw materials/skill and scope of expansion both horizontally and vertically. If it seems feasible to take up an already existing processing unit run by any PG/SHG, another processing unit of any activity can be established taking of other SHGs into the fold.
The One GP One Product initiative calls for forming Producer Groups led by women self help group members for operating the processing centers. One processing center will be started in each Gram Panchayat to process primary products. All these interventions and units will be monitored by the concerned Block Development Officers. All the associated departments and their schemes such as related to agriculture, horticulture, fisheries, Veterinary, ORMAS will be converged for funding of the units selected.
The activities will be selected on the basis of the availability of raw materials, skilled workers, concentration of number of SHGs, etc., for better coordination and standardization of the products. For example, a number of SHGs involved in manufacture and processing of coir products can be brought together in Remuna area of the district. Likewise, terracotta producers can be brought together in Oupada area for greater convergence. This will add to the improvement in the quality of the end product also.
The district administration will help marketing of the end products through exclusive Mission Shakti shops in urban areas and linkages with be established with business organizations to send the products outside.
Commenting on the initiative, Collector Dattatraya Bhausaheb Shinde says that “the aim is to converting activities of Mission Shakti SHGs from livelihood to entrepreneurship. This will create small entrepreneurial ventures in all the Gram Panchayats. There will be standardization of end product and incentives of large scale production. We want to bring in some modern management strategies on the ground to make our entrepreneur turned SHG members fight with the established players.”
The Mission Shakti Producer Groups/ Self Help Groups or the Gram Panchayat Federation will finalise the business plan and raise the requirements of funds at least for one product cycle. Out of the total funds required, 40 percent shall be generated from members’ contribution in proportionate manner. The rest 60 percent shall be mobilised as loan through GPLF, BLF and Bank linkage. Also, all schematic benefits related to the same activity shall be provided by the concerned departments attentively in all levels.