Ranchi: Jharkhand State Livelihood Promotion Society (JSLPS) in collaboration with The Nudge Society (NGO) on Monday said, 625 families have been out of the list from the vicious cycle of poverty in 41 villages of 6 blocks of Latehar and Gumla districts of Jharkhand. This has been possible due to the successful implementation of the Institute’s initiative to bring people living in extreme poverty in Jharkhand out of this vicious cycle. Through this initiative, women from extremely poor families, who are colloquially called Didi, were empowered.
In this, priority was especially given to women from deprived tribal groups. Society helped them break out of the vicious circle of poverty by providing them with sustainable livelihoods, ensuring food security, enabling them to access government schemes entitlements provided by the government and active participation in social and financial institutions.
Governor of Jharkhand C.P. Radhakrishnan participated during the graduation ceremony held at Aryabhatta Auditorium of Ranchi University on the occasion of lifting the targeted families out of the vicious cycle of poverty. Governor CP Radhakrishnan honored the sisters who were successful in breaking the vicious cycle of poverty.
“Partnering with the government is an important step in implementing a program on a large scale and ensuring that the benefits of the program reach the ultimate beneficiary,” he said. The Nudge Institute has done this work successfully and is currently making efforts in this direction in Rajasthan, Assam, Tripura, Meghalaya, Karnataka, West Bengal, Jharkhand and Punjab.
In all these states the Institute is working in collaboration with State Rural Livelihood Mission, DAY-NRLM of Ministry of Rural Development and Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Government of India. In 2024, The Nudge Institute aims to work with two lakh extremely poor families in the country.
The initiative was launched in 2018 to enable extremely poor families to move out of poverty by empowering women. This is the second group of women who have succeeded in coming out of the vicious cycle of poverty under its initiative. Earlier in December 2022, 400 such didis were honored who were successful in coming out of the vicious cycle of poverty.
The Nudge Institute has designed this ‘Graduation Approach’ in Lohardaga, Latehar and Gumla districts keeping in mind the situation of Jharkhand. The impact of this effort can be understood from the assessment published by Nobel laureates Dr. Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo.
Under the ‘Graduation Approach’, extremely poor families are helped to come out of the vicious cycle of poverty by providing livelihood, ensuring food security and empowering them through other means. The livelihood of this group of 625 Didis honored has improved at par with global standards.
More than 94 percent of these families are now consuming nutritious, balanced and adequate diets (tricolor food). Didis have now become more financially secure and through the activities related to this program, 95 percent of these didis are earning an additional income of Rs 15,000 annually. Their productive assets have seen a minimum increase of 35 percent.
Through their participation, about 96 percent of Didis in SHGs are now saving on a weekly basis and each has a bank account and low-cost insurance. This program has created awareness among them about government schemes. 97 percent of households currently have access to at least two government schemes.
Jharkhand Governor said, on this occasion of honoring the Didis who have come out of the vicious cycle of poverty, I would like to express my gratitude to our partners and the Government of Jharkhand, who supported us in this journey. We are committed to further empowering more women from extremely poor families, which will help in achieving India’s goal of eliminating extreme poverty in the next few years.’
Society has set a target of empowering more than 10 lakh extremely poor families of India in 5 years and in this direction the Institute has partnered with the government and related sectors. Besides, he himself is implementing the program at the grassroots level. Society is also investing in creating technology and education and development solutions in the country. To support the government, the institute is also collecting evidence of programs targeted at the poorest of the poor.
Recognizing the need to implement such impactful programs, in 2019, Palash (JSLPS) in collaboration with DAY-NRLM and the society launched UPJ (Ultra Poor Graduation Approach in Jharkhand). Its objective was to support 4000 families in 3 years.
The Society collaborated with DAY-NRLM and the Ministry of Rural Development to implement the program on a large scale. The program has been extended to more than 24,000 poor families in 6 states Jharkhand, Tripura, Rajasthan, Meghalaya, Assam and West Bengal through the Ministry of Rural Development and State Governments (SRLM).
The Society has also partnered with the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Government of India to positively impact more and more such families. Additionally, The Society has also partnered with JSLPS to implement two state run programs ‘Phulo Jano Ashirwad Abhiyan’ and ‘Birsa Vishisht Tribal Vikas Yojana’. These initiatives will positively impact the lives of 1, 30,000 rural women from Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs) and other vulnerable groups in Jharkhand and help them break out of the vicious cycle of extreme poverty.