World Bank steps up support to project aimed at boosting income of rural women

The government Tuesday signed a USD 250-million agreement with the World Bank to fund the National Rural Economic Transformation Project (NRETP) which seeks to boost the income of rural women. The focus of the project is to promote women-owned and women-led farm and non-farm enterprises across the value chains, the World Bank said in a statement. It will also enable rural women to build businesses that help them access finance, markets and networks, apart from generating jobs.

The NRETP is additional financing to the USD 500- million National Rural Livelihoods Project (NRLP) approved by the World Bank in July 2011 and the loan comes from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development with a 5-year grace period and a maturity of 20 years. "This additional funding will help give impetus to the poverty alleviation measures and ensure equitable and inclusive growth," additional economic affairs secretary Sameer Kumar Khare was quoted as saying in the statement.

World Bank's acting country director Hisham Abdo said NRLP has mobilized close to 9 million rural women into strong self-managed institutional platforms, helping them access services, participate in gram sabhas and start engaging in income-generating activities. "Many of these women are now geared towards moving into higher order economic initiatives in farm and non-farm sectors. The new project will now help them engage purposefully in an evolving rural economy," Abdo said.

The NRLP is currently being implemented across 162 districts and 575 blocks spanning 13 states. While these 13 states will continue to be supported under the new project, 125 new districts will be added from within these states. The NERTP will support enterprise development programmes for poor rural women and youth by creating a platform to access finance including start-up financing options to build their individual or collectively owned and managed enterprises..

(With inputs from agencies.)