Nirmala Sitharaman applauds Meghalaya’s SHG success, pledges continued Central support

On the third day of her visit to Meghalaya, Union Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs, Nirmala Sitharaman, delivered a strong endorsement of Meghalaya’s dynamic Self-Help Group (SHG) movement and praised its grassroots model of inclusive development. Accompanied by State Agriculture Minister Mazel Ampareen Lyngdoh, she engaged with SHG members, farmers, and village organizations across Laitkynsew, Seij, and Sohbar, reaffirming the Centre’s commitment to Meghalaya’s economic vision.

In a landmark interaction in Laitkynsew, the Finance Minister commended the convergence of central and state initiatives that have reached even the remotest citizens. “Sabka Vikas must translate into universal benefit — man or woman, village or city, rich or poor,” she asserted.

Sitharaman spotlighted Meghalaya’s remarkable strides in reducing Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR), crediting SHG-led social reforms. MMR has plummeted from 240 to below 104, owing to interventions led by health initiatives and SHG networks. She applauded the goal of enabling each SHG woman to become a ‘Lakhpati Didi’, earning at least ₹1 lakh annually, and urged every village to contribute toward Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s target of creating five lakh such women in each village across India.

The Minister highlighted the economic potential of SHGs in Meghalaya’s ambitious $30 billion economy vision by 2032, noting that ₹500 crore has already been disbursed through the Community Investment Fund, with banks contributing another ₹400 crore. With members’ own savings, SHGs now operate with a corpus exceeding ₹1,000 crore, forming the backbone of the state’s socio-economic transformation.

In Seij village, under Shella Bholaganj block, Sitharaman trekked to the 300-year-old Umkar living root bridge, lauding the architectural wisdom of Hally War, the local innovator behind the bridge. She called the structure a symbol of Meghalaya’s sustainable heritage.

Among the success stories she encountered was Lahun Mary Blah, an SHG member whose income grew from ₹20,000 to ₹3.4 lakh annually. Her transformation from homemaker to entrepreneur embodies the impact of Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma’s leadership, under whom SHG membership surged from 50,000 to 5.3 lakh women.

Earlier in Upper Shillong, Sitharaman visited the Shiitake Mushroom Training Centre, witnessing firsthand how integrated farming and government support are helping turn farmers into agri-entrepreneurs.

At her final stop in Sohbar, a frontier village under the Vibrant Villages Programme, Sitharaman became the first Union Minister to visit the area. She assured residents that all Government of India schemes would be implemented effectively and welcomed the announcement of a ₹20.93 crore Externally Aided Project to transform Sohbar into a vibrant tourism hub.

She underlined Prime Minister Modi’s vision of viewing border villages as “First Villages” — not the last, but the forefront of development. The Minister reaffirmed the Centre’s unwavering support for Meghalaya’s inclusive growth agenda, both in spirit and substance.