BHUBANESWAR: Around 3.6 lakh people from scheduled categories and economically weaker sections of the society of 10 districts have been benefited under World Bank-assisted Targeted Rural Initiative for Poverty Termination and Infrastructure (TRIPTI) programme.
The project, a poverty reduction programme, aims at enhancing the socio-economic status of the poor, especially women and disadvantaged groups, in 38 blocks of 10 districts.
The project launched in November 2009 has mobilised 79,000 self-help groups (SHGs) and made them economically self-sustainable by leveraging funds from commercial banks and other financial institutions to meet their credit needs for establishing micro-economic activities.
The implementation completion and results report (ICRR) of the World Bank Mission team said around Rs 446 crore has been invested in the project and 79,000 SHGs have been mobilised and empowered against a target of 30,000.
Around 1010 gram panchayat level SHG federations have been made active and sustainable and they are now providing lending support to SHGs. Capital investment of Rs 570 crore for gram panchayat level formal structure (GPLF) management has now grown to Rs 1,402 crore.
Around 73 per cent of community loans have been used in agriculture and related activities and about one lakh households have upgraded their productive activities through adoption of the system of rice intensification (SRI), line sowing and seed village concepts.
The micro-economic activities by the SHGs have brought around Rs 120 crore of incremental income to beneficiaries in last three years.
The report of the World Bank Mission team headed by Jim Hancock was discussed at a high level meeting, presided over by Chief Secretary GC Pati on Saturday here.
The TRIPTI project was implemented in 38 blocks of 10 districts of Angul, Balasore, Bhadrak, Cuttack, Jagatsinghpur, Jajpur, Kendrapara, Khurda, Nayagarh and Puri.
Feedback from stakeholders show that approaches like proper identification of the poor, micro and household investment plan, capacity building of community through incentive-based process, record keeping, identification of bank mitras from among SHG members, dedicated and professional implementation structure along with transparency and accountability have made the project successful.
The Chief Secretary asked Odisha Livelihood Mission functioning under the Panchayati Raj department to document the interventions and processes already proved successful in project areas and replicate them in livelihood mission activities.