Reading Meters To Electrifying Their Lives: A Tale of Successes By Gajapati SHG Members

Gajapati: Mission Shakti is one of the flagship programmes of the Government of Odisha to encourage women empowerment in the state. Initiated in the year 2001, in these two decades, the programme has helped millions of women become self reliant. More than six lakh SHGs having more than 80 lakh members are today not only transforming the rural and urban economy but also enriching their own lives. Gajapati district with its more than 11 thousand SHGs is pioneering the self help movement through various activities. Today, Self Help Groups of Gajapati district are involved in various activities such as procurement of goods and providing services to the government and public as well. One of the best example of activities undertaken by them is electric meter reading and bill collection for distribution companies.

With the state government approving the provisioning of services and procurement of Goods through WSHGs in convergence with ten government departments in 2019, Gajapati WSHGs took the lead and today more than 100 of them are engaged in meter reading and bill collection.

Women Self Help Groups are engaged under the Department of Energy for electric meter reading and bill collection in various Gram Panchayatas. In Gajapati district, 108 WSHGs have already entered into an agreement with the Discom i.e., TPSODL, for collection of electric bills and electric meter reading. The selected WSHG members collect the electric bills from the consumers of the concerned Gram Panchayats and deposit the same in their respective electrical subdivisions. They get an amount of Rs.5/- for one bill collected.

Jihobajiri SHG from Jeerango Panchayata in Rayagada Block in Gajapati district is one such group engaged in meter reading. Formed in 2016 with nine women members, the group worked hard in various activities to overcome from their financial condition and were able to help each other economically. The initial activity for the SHG was to market the local forest produce locally.
The convergence programme taken up under Mission Shakti opened new avenues for the members. They decided to get involved in collecting Electric bills and meter reading work in their Gram Panchayat. They applied as per the Government notification released for engagement of WSHGs under TPSODL. The WSHG was selected for the work and executed agreement with TPSODL for collection of electric bill and meter reading in their GP level.

Today they are doing the assigned work successfully and having an annual turnover of Rs. 33 Lakhs. From this activity, the WSHG got a profit of around 90,000/- in a year. The profit has helped them to pay the school fees of their children, maintain household items, and support their family financially.

The SHG members also actively participated in Sanitation campaigns – Initiatives taken to clean the village premises, disposal of waste materials, disinfection of all sources of drinking water, Tree Plantation etc.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, they were also involved in awareness camps for mask wearing, maintain social distance and hand wash practice. Supported by the district administration, they involved themselves in “Sampurna Mask Gram” Campaign.