Amul in its continued endeavor to improve the socio-economic conditions of rural people extended its expertise in implementation of the Swarnjayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana (SGSY) of The Government of India (Ministry of Rural Development) on their Special Project on “Improving Socio-economic Conditions of BPL Families of Kheda District through Animal Husbandry and Dairying”– DAIRYING AS A TOOL FOR POVERTY ALLEVIATION.
The Swarnjayanti Gram Swarozagar Yojana is a holistic self-employment programme for the rural poor of India. The basic objective of the programme is to bring below poverty line families above poverty line by providing them in generating assets to become self-employed. The purchase of assets is facilitated through a mix of government subsidy and bank credit.
- It is a holistic self-employment programme as it supports all facets of self-employment like organizing them into Self Help Groups, helping them in selection of key activities, building their capacities, providing them appropriate training and exposure, building infrastructure, introducing them to new technology, and providing them marketing support. The programme is implemented through District Rural Development Agencies (DRDAs) with active involvement of Panchayati Raj Institutions, banks, line departments of the Government and development institutions.
- Amul has covered under this programme more than 8,755 beneficiaries to whom milch animals were distributed in the District of Kheda and stood as guarantor for the bank loans. These beneficiaries were then given membership of dairy co-operatives in order to bring these poor households into mainstream economy by transforming dairying into active income-generation enterprises. As part of this programme 12,647 women and men were trained in dairy husbandry in addition to construction of number of cattle sheds, development of green fodder plots, distribution of chaff cutters and stainless steel cans.
- To provide ground water availability, 56 bore wells were dug. More than 50 mobile Artificial Insemination units are pressed in operation for these farmers to deliver services at the doorstep. A Mobile Diagnostic Laboratory has also been put in operation to provide effective health services along with round the clock service of veterinary doctors. This initiative has considerably helped in improving the socio-economic conditions and quality of life of a large number of BPL families.
