Jharkhand: 15,867 women leave illicit liquor business for dignified livelihood 

CM’s pet project Phulo Jhanno Ashirwad Yojana brings smiles on underprivileged women 

Ranchi, September 6: Women who sold countrymade liquor and hadia have been transformed into banking correspondent showcasing success of the CM pet project Phulo Jhanno Ashirwad Yojana.

Like Khunti district’s Anima Herrenge who is no longer involved in hadiya and liquor business and established her identity as a Banker didi and several others are a testimony of the Phulo Jhano Ashirwad Yoajana success  which has helped such women in eking out dignified livelihoods.

Anima, who is a resident of the Chatta village of the Karra block, was unable to utilise  the education that she had received due to the lack of opportunities. It is to the credit of the scheme that Anima received an amount of Rs 10,000 for which she was not required to pay any interest. Anima made use of this money to buy a smartphone which, after training, enabled her to secure the  smooth functioning of the DigiPay platform and various other kinds of banking related transactions.

The education that Anima had received enabled her to learn the basics of banking and go ahead with the banking guidelines when it came to deposits and withdrawal in no time. In a matter of few months, she expanded her working capacity and started helping all the villagers of her Panchayat with their banking requirements.

The Chatta village, has no bank’s branch in ten kilometers radius due to its remote location , it was very difficult for the villagers to visit the branch of the bank. In such a situation, the Didi doorstep banking solutions was initiated and everyday transactions of 20-25 thousand started taking place.

 Anima, has been allotted the BC point of Bank of India for the Chatta Panchayat.  This has facilitated Anima to take care of the banking needs of the villagers that includes account opening, insurances, and various transactions right from the comforts of her home. This remarkable scheme has been knitting a dignified saga of change and empowerment amongst the hadiya liquor sellers.

Under the Phoolo Jhano Ashirwad Abhiyan, so far 15867 women earlier engaged in the production and sale of the local hadiya liquor have been given loans, so that they can adopt dignified ways of livelihood. Out of these, 5638 women have started repaying the loan. At the same time, an additional amount of rupees 10 thousand that is given under the scheme has been provided to 4745 women. Out of these, 2419 women have already started paying the loan amount.

Simedga is leading the campaign by covering 1625 women under the umbrella of the scheme, followed by Ranchi which has 1603 women covered, Gumla stands with 1505 women as beneficiaries under the scheme. Lohardaga has 1355 women covered followed by Godda where the number of beneficiaries are 1091.