BHUBANESWAR: A day after deputy chief minister Pravati Parida announced leadership transitions in SHGs and their federations, the state government on Tuesday informed that from now on, the restructuring will be done once in every three years, and no member will hold office for more than two consecutive terms. Besides, the entire restructuring process will be completed within the next four months.
Guidelines issued by both the Centre (under National Urban Livelihood Mission (NULM)) and state (Odisha Livelihood Mission) mandate leadership rotation in SHGs and their cluster-level forums (CLFs), gram panchayat-level federations (GPLFs), block-level federations (BLFs), and district-level federations (DLFs) at regular intervals. The community institutions are expected to select their presidents, secretaries, executive committee members and other office-bearers. However, that hasn’t been done for several years in the state.
The Mission Shakti department on Tuesday informed that through the comprehensive restructuring process, 12,42,940 new office-bearers at the SHG level and 11,58,000 executive committee members at the CLF level will assume leadership positions. Overall, more than 35 lakh women members across various institutional levels will get the opportunity to hold leadership roles in SHGs and their federations.
The process has already been started with SHGs this month under the supervision of district collectors and by Tuesday, leaderships were changed in 30,000 SHGs. Through this, SHG women across the state will get an opportunity to actively participate in leadership transitions, thereby gaining the platform to assume decision-making roles and boost their confidence.
It has been decided to complete leadership transitions in all CLFs and GPLFs by May and June. Finally, leadership changes in block-level federations and district-level federations have been scheduled to be completed in August.
The department further informed that guidelines are being formulated for the formation of area-level and city-level federations.