Self-help groups making strides: Errabelli Dayakar Rao

Warangal: Telangana Government has provided bank linkage loans to the tune of Rs 44,278 crore to the self-help groups (SHGs) through Society for Elimination of Rural Poverty (SERP) in last seven years, Panchayat Raj and Rural Development Minister Errabelli Dayakar Rao said.

"In the current financial year, the SERP set a target to provide Rs 12,070 crore to the 3.80 lakh SHGs. As part of it, Rs 168.81 crore loan was provided to 4,833 SHGs in this fiscal. Efforts are on to extend linkage loans to other groups as early as possible," Errabelli said.

He said that since the formation of Telangana, the government was focusing on providing linkage loans to the SHGs enabling poor households to access adequate formal credit at their doorsteps.

In 2014-15 financial year, the 1.96 lakh SHGs in the State got a linkage loan of Rs 3,739 crore. It rose phenomenally by the 2020-21 financial year. The SERP provided linkage loans to the tune of Rs 10,448 crore to 2.71 lakh SHGs, the minister said.

The minister said that since the bifurcation, 78,458 new SHGs have come up in the State. In all, there are 4.38 lakh SHGs now, he added. The total number of members is 47.55 lakh. Of which, 10.21 lakh are scheduled castes, 6.55 are scheduled tribes, 1.54 lakh are minorities, 25.81 lakh are backward classes and 35,138 are forward castes.

"The focus of the Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao is to empower women," Errabelli said, referring to the welfare and developmental programmes implemented by the TRS Government. The target is to make women self-reliant, he added. It's heartening to see the products manufactured by the SHGs have become popular in the domestic and international market, Errabelli said.