Context: The motivated, enthusiastic and committed women members of Self-Help Groups (SHGs) across the country formed under the Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Rural Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NRLM) is contributing in addressing COVID-19 outbreak in India.
About their Effort

• These women are engaged in livelihoods activities, bringing social change through awareness generation, leading movements and responding during natural calamities.
• During the on-going crisis, SHG members have emerged as community warriors by contributing in every possible way to contain the spread of COVID-19.
• The SHG network across the country was made aware of the various aspects of the disease (personal hygiene, social distancing etc.) through Audio Visual (AV) IEC material and advisories developed by the Health Ministry which were circulated to all State Rural Livelihoods Missions (SRLMs).
• In Tamil Nadu, two volunteers of SHGs are assigned to each PDS shop. They are provided gloves, masks and sanitisers and they ensure that people in the queue maintain adequate distance.

Important Interventions by SRLMs

• JEEViKA, Bihar stepped in and started working on IEC materials that would help in awareness and preparedness for the outbreak.
• Rangolis for Awareness: SHG women from UP SRLM ‘Prerna’ have used their creativity to make rangolis and mark lines and circles to re-emphasise the need for ‘social distancing’. They have also been making wall paintings to spread key messages about COVID prevention in their communities.
• Didi Helpline: The Didi helpline, a telephonic helpline initiated by Jharkhand SRLM, is open 24 hours to help migrant labourers by providing them verified  It enables them to provide their data to state authorities to help evacuate them from different states, back to Jharkhand.
• Efforts to Dispel Fake News: Notable efforts have been made by women of Kudumbashree in Kerala, to help dispel the widespread fake news that causes  Through its network of WhatsApp groups, Kudumbasree is trying to propagate only the right information to the community.
• These platforms are used specifically to disseminate immediate, authentic information and updates on the outbreak and precautionary measures.
• Through many similar responsible collective actions organized across the nation,marginalised and vulnerable women of these communities have played a significant role in the war against Coronavirus while being empowered both socially and economically.

About Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Rural Livelihoods Mission

• It was launched by the Ministry of Rural Development in 2011 as a restructured version of Swarna Jayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojna (SGSY).
• It aims at creating efficient and effective institutional platforms for the rural poor enabling them to increase household income through sustainable livelihood enhancements and improved access to financial services.
• NRLM has set out with an agenda to cover 7 crore rural poor households, across 600 districts, 6000 blocks, 2.5 lakh Gram Panchayats and 6 lakh villages in the country through self-managed SHGs and institutions and support them for livelihoods collectives in a period of 8-10 years.

Salient Features of the Mission

• It lays special emphasis on targeting the poorest of the poor and the most vulnerable communities (i.e. Antyodaya) and their financial inclusion.

Innovative projects under National Rural Economic Transformation Project (NRETP)

• to pilot alternate channels of financial inclusion;
• creating value chains around rural products;
• introduce innovative models in livelihoods promotion and;
• access to finance and scale-up initiatives on digital finance and livelihood interventions.

DAY-NRLM provides for mutually beneficial working relationships and formal platforms for consultations between Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) and Community Based Organizations (CBOs).

NRLM has also developed an activity map to facilitate convergence in different areas of interventions where NRLM institutions and PRIs could work together which has been disseminated to all SRLMs.