Rural enterprise acceleration programme for SHG women of J&K-"SAATH", which was
launched by the Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha, an initiative of Jammu Kashmir Rural Livelihoods Mission (JKRLM) aims to contribute towards economic empowerment, development of rural
Women. Mission Director Jammu Kashmir Rural Livelihoods Mission (JKRLM), Dr Syed
Sehrish Asgar speaking to reporters here on Monday said that under this Programme
"SAATH the SHG women entrepreneurs of rural areas will be provided mentoring and
handholding support through intensive capacity Building workshops and one to one
mentoring for upscaling their business ventures nationally and internationally. "A total of 8085 applicants across Jammu
and Kashmir have applied for the Program, Highest applications were received from Baramulla District in the Kashmir Division
and district Doda, from Jammu division," said the Director.
She informed that 500 enterprises (244 from Jammu and 257 from Kashmir Division) with the highest enterprise potential have been chosen for an intensive
training program to be followed by mentoring while 5000 entrepreneurs will be exposed to various business enablement
strategies including e-commerce sales, branding.
Dr Sehrish further briefed that 95 percent of the applicants reported to be operating within the state while the remaining 5 percent had operations nationally while as 45 percent applicants reported that given the right support they can offer employment to over
27000 rural women in the coming one year, with an average of 7.5 potential jobs being
created per rural enterprise when supported through SAATH, while the remaining 55 percent applicants saw a new employment generation potential of around 2 persons per enterprise taking the total employment potential over 35000 in the UTof J&K.
These 8000 odd SAATH programme applicants are employing approx 12000
employees presently, she added.
Dr Sehrish said that JKRLM will create an enabling environment for these rural women enterprises by creating a conducive
ecosystem and facilitate to achieve the full potential of 35000 jobs and more in the UT
of Jammu and Kashmir.
It is to mention that the program SAATH which has India SME Forum, a national resource organisation for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, as the implementing partner will launch its orientation program
in Jammu from September 21, with the selected rural Women for Jammu Division.
