The Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana – National Rural Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NRLM), a flagship poverty alleviation programme of the Ministry of Rural Development, has enabled over 1.48 crore rural women to become ‘Lakhpati Didis’—women earning at least Rs 1 lakh annually—till June 2025, the government informed the Lok Sabha on Monday.
Launched in June 2011, DAY-NRLM aims to organise rural poor households into Self Help Groups (SHGs), provide them long-term support, and help them gradually raise their incomes and come out of abject poverty. The programme is being implemented across the country, except in Delhi and Chandigarh.
According to a written reply by Minister of State for Rural Development Dr. Chandra Sekhar Pemmasani in the Lok Sabha, a total of 15.61 lakh SHGs and 94,000 Village Organisations (VOs) have been formed under DAY-NRLM since the financial year 2022–23 till June 2025.
In a major financial inclusion push, the scheme has also trained and deployed 65,949 SHG women as Business Correspondent Agents, or BC Sakhis, during this period. These women help deliver key financial services—such as cash deposits, credit, remittances, disbursal of pensions and scholarships, and wage payments under MGNREGA—in remote rural areas with limited access to banks. They also assist in enrolling beneficiaries under insurance and pension schemes.
The ‘Lakhpati Didi’ model refers to an SHG member whose annual household income is at least Rs 1 lakh, with a monthly income of at least Rs 10,000, sustained across four agricultural seasons or business cycles. The government stated that 1.48 crore SHG women have achieved this milestone till June 2025, underscoring the success of the scheme in promoting grassroots entrepreneurship and rural economic upliftment.
