In a great news for all Self Help Groups (SHGs), the Modi government has launched a unique initiative on its Government e Marketplace (GeM) portal under Deen Dayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Rural Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NRLM) to help small artisans to sell their products. Under 'The Saras Collection' initiative, the SHG sellers will be able to list their products in 5 product categories viz handicrafts, handloom & textiles, office accessories, grocery & pantry, personal care & hygiene.

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Around 913 SHGs from 11 States have already registered as sellers and 442 products have been on-boarded, as per a government release. In order to develop a scalable model capable of on-boarding a large number of SHGs across the country in a short time frame, GeM has developed an API based integration mechanism with the NRLM database, the release said.

The initiative was launched by Narendra Singh Tomar, Union Minister for Rural Development and Panchayati Raj and Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare.

The initiative aims to provide SHGs in rural areas with market access to Central and State Government buyers. GeM will provide dashboards for functionaries at the national, state, district and block level to provide them real time information about the number of products uploaded by SHGs, and value and volume of orders received and fulfilled, the release added.

In addition, Government buyers shall be sensitised through system generated messages/alerts in the Marketplace about availability of SHG products on the portal, the release further said.

Potential buyers shall be able to search, view, cart and procure such products through the stipulated modes of procurement.

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The on-boarding of the SHGs under the initiative has been initially piloted in the States of Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Himachal Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. The coverage shall be rapidly extended to enable a large number of SHGs from all the states/ Union Territories to sell their products to Government buyers.