25,000 SHGs ‘missing’ in Bihar, probe on
The “silent revolution” claimed by the Bihar government in the formation and expansion of self-help groups in the state may have become too quiet for comfort. About 25,000 SHGs that NGOs claim to have formed in Bihar are found missing, with no information available about the funds they deposited.
Data collected from the district administrations about the actual numbers and locations of the registered SHGs of rural women has prompted a worried state government to launch a massive verification drive, said officials of the rural development department. Of the 1.25 lakh SHGs so far examined, more than 25,000 have been found to be mysteriously non-existent on the ground. While some SGHs apparently stopped operations within a year of beginning, others may have existed only on paper, said officials.
In the northern Darbhanga district, only 5,473 SHGs were found functional out of the 13,674 SHGs listed. In the southern Jamui district, only 1,282 SHGs could be located out of the 5,077 listed. While far-flung districts show similar data about missing SHGs, officials said 6,166 SHGs were found functional as against the total 6,466 registered in Patna district.
“We have asked the deputy development commissioners to renew work on collecting data on more than 25,000 SHGs whose names, addresses and bank accounts could not be found,” said Bihar employment commissioner and Jeevika managing director Arvind Kumar Chaudhary.
Jeevika, or Bihar Rural Livelihood Project, is a World Bank-aided, community-driven rural development project that is implementing the task of forming 10 lakh SHGs in Bihar under the Centre’s new Ajivika scheme that replaced the Swarnjayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana.
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