The Ministry of Rural Development and Meesho, India’s only true online marketplace, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) today to drive digital inclusion of all women registered under State Rural Livelihood Missions (SRLMs) and enable them to sell online. The partnership will give impetus to Meesho’s ongoing efforts to onboard rural women entrepreneurs in various states and enable them to launch and grow their businesses online. Over the last few months, Meesho has tied up with several government-run self-help groups (SHGs), such as Sanjeevini – Karnataka State Rural Livelihood Mission and UMEED – Jammu and Kashmir Rural Livelihoods Mission.
Meesho will now work with the central government to facilitate this digitisation at scale, organising rural women as community institutions, ensuring their financial inclusion and helping them with market access. The Ministry of Rural Development will support Meesho’s engagement with state-owned and SRLM-promoted enterprises to bring local artisans, weavers and craft producers into the e-commerce fold.
Giriraj Singh, Minister for Rural Development and Panchayati Raj, said, “Uplifting rural women across India by unlocking livelihood opportunities for them has been our key objective. Our constant endeavour has been to support the growth and development of rural communities and the collaboration with Meesho will be instrumental in driving financial inclusion for them. Through market insights and training on product cataloguing and packaging, women from these self-help groups will be able to leverage the power of technology in making their products visible and accessible to a wider customer base, thereby increasing their earning potential.
With more than 40% of the women population in non-farming, it is our collective responsibility to build capabilities and unlock wider opportunities for them through online selling platforms. We are hopeful to empower 10 crore women financially through this partnership, thereby making them an integral part of India’s vision of becoming a $5 trillion economy.”
Meesho’s continued commitment towards creating a level playing field for the smallest of sellers and its industry-first initiatives like zero commission will encourage women from across the country to embrace internet commerce and allow them to access a wider market. Aligned with Meesho’s vision to enable 100 million small businesses to succeed online, the move will allow them to become self-employed entrepreneurs and fulfil their aspirations of achieving financial independence.
Sanjeev Barnwal, Co-founder and CTO, Meesho, said, “We are honoured to partner with the Ministry of Rural Development on our mission to democratise internet commerce for everyone. Women entrepreneurship is key to India’s vision of becoming a $5 trillion economy and, over the years, Meesho has empowered lakhs of them to succeed in the online world and achieve financial independence. This partnership will amplify our efforts in that direction, unlocking the power of internet commerce for their social and economic growth. We will provide them with all the tools and guidance they need to grow their business online with Meesho.”
Meesho will provide end-to-end support to SHGs, training them on the various facets of running an online business. From guidance on identifying the right products and creating a seller account to uploading catalogues and packaging, Meesho will organise a host of in-person training workshops in several regional languages. Further, Meesho will impart education and training on features like product and pricing recommendations, besides facilitating logistics tie-ups in the respective states.
About Meesho
Meesho is India’s only true e-commerce marketplace. With a vision to enable 100 million small businesses, including individual entrepreneurs, to succeed online, Meesho is democratising internet commerce and bringing a range of products and new customers online. The Meesho marketplace provides small businesses, which includes SMBs, MSMEs and individual entrepreneurs, access to millions of customers, a selection from over 30 categories, pan-India logistics, payment services and customer support capabilities to efficiently run their businesses on the Meesho ecosystem.
About National Rural Livelihood Mission
The Ministry under Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana – National Rural Livelihood Mission (DAY-NRLM) flagship programme has been working to improve the living conditions of rural Indians by enhancing livelihoods through the SHG ecosystem and providing SHG members better income by facilitating better and profitable markets for their produce. As of January 2023, NRLM has its footprints in 7,054 blocks across 737 districts in 34 States/UTs. It has mobilised a total of 8.79 Crore women into 81.61 lakh SHGs who have been federated into 4.76 lacks Village Organisations and 31,070 Cluster Level Federations.
Besides the Capitalization Support funding of over Rs. 28K crores provided by the programme, Bank loans of Rs. 6.17 lakh crore cumulatively have been also accessed by SHGs. Most of the funds have been used for promoting livelihood activities in the farm and non-farm livelihood sectors. Over 2.30 lakh rural enterprises owned by SHG members have been supported directly under the non-farm livelihood activities of DAY-NRLM.
