Haryana Cabinet approves new scheme for engaging SHGs for collection of water charges

The Fact News Service

Chandigarh, July 5

Haryana Chief Minister, while taking a step forward towards making women of the Self-help Groups (SHGs) more empowered and financially stable has decided to introduce a new scheme for engaging SHG women as service providers in the Rural Water Supply Scheme under Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM). The Scheme aims to give an opportunity to SHG members to earn an additional livelihood as well as Gram Panchayat to increase the revenue from the residents, while promoting water conservation.

The State Cabinet which met under the chairmanship of the Chief Minister,  Manohar Lal here today approved a proposal regarding engaging SHGs for collection of water charges and other related services in rural areas’-vesting of powers with Gram Panchayats for planning, implementation, Operation and Maintenance Policy for water supply scheme.

Under this scheme, the billing for water charges is proposed to be carried out by Village Water and Sanitation Committees (VWSC-GP) which will engage Self Help Groups (SHG) women members for sending online bills on BISWAS (PHED Portal). The distribution and collection of water charges shall be carried out by SHG members as per guidelines of the State Rural Livelihood Mission (SRLM) from time to time.

As per the scheme terms and conditions, Cluster Level Federation (CLF) will be engaged as a Service Provider to carry out various IEC activities under JJM at the District level. Further 1 or 2 SHG Women will be engaged at the village level under JJM. These women will work as resource persons at the village level and perform selected activities in coordination with the Village Water Sanitation Committee (VWSC), Water and Sanitation Support Organization (WSSO) and Public Health Engineering Department (PHED).

The said scheme has been prepared with close coordination with the Haryana State Rural Livelihood Mission (HSRLM) regarding the engagement of Members of the Self Help Group as Service Providers for carrying out field-level selected activities in coordination with PHED.

Haryana State Rural Livelihood Mission (HSRLM) is a flagship program of the Government of India to eradicate poverty among rural, poor women. At present, Haryana State Rural Livelihood Mission (HSRLM) has mobilized 5,85,146 households in 57,030 Self-Help Groups (SHGs) covering 143 blocks of all 22 districts of Haryana. Haryana State Rural Livelihood Mission (HSRLM) is making continuous and sustained efforts to provide livelihood activities to those poor SHG women with an aim to improve their income level of women. This scheme also leads to women empowerment besides ensuring gender- just society.