Uttar Pradesh Mahila Samarthya Yojana

What is Uttar Pradesh Mahila Samarthya Yojana?

Uttar Pradesh Mahila Samarthya Yojana is a women's livelihood programme run by the Women Welfare Department of the Government of Uttar Pradesh, through the Directorate of Women Welfare at Jawahar Bhavan, Lucknow. The scheme was announced in the state budget for 2021-22, presented on 22 February 2021, and has been carried forward in subsequent state budgets.

The stated purpose of Mahila Samarthya Yojana is to move women from wage work to running their own small enterprises. The department's framing is specific: raise women's standard of living through home and cottage industries based on locally available resources, and then help them sell what they make. Under the programme the state has, for example, set up dairy units producing milk and milk products that are operated by women.

The programme is organised around self-help groups rather than individual applicants. A group of women takes up an activity together, the department supports the group with training and enterprise inputs, and the department also takes responsibility for arranging a market for the produce. This last part, market linkage; is what the department has consistently described as the distinguishing feature of the scheme.

Who is eligible for Mahila Samarthya Yojana?

You can take part if:

• You are a woman and a permanent resident of Uttar Pradesh.
• You are an adult, and in practice the programme targets working-age women in rural areas.
• You are a member of a registered self-help group that is functioning, holds regular meetings and operates a group bank account.
• Your group is willing to take up a production or service activity using locally available raw material.

You cannot apply / are not covered if:

• You are not a resident of Uttar Pradesh, since the scheme is funded from the state budget.
• You approach the scheme as an individual with no self-help group. The unit of support is the group, and an individual application is normally redirected to first join or form a group.
• Your group is unregistered or inactive, with no bank account or no record of meetings and savings.
• You are looking for a direct monthly cash allowance. Mahila Samarthya Yojana is not a cash transfer scheme, and readers wanting income support should look at the state's pension and Kanya Sumangala schemes instead.

What does Mahila Samarthya Yojana provide?

Mahila Samarthya Yojana works through a package of support to the group rather than a single announced rupee figure to a person:

• Skill training in the trade the group chooses, so that the product is of saleable quality.
• Enterprise support: help with the working capital, equipment and premises a small production unit needs to start.
• Market linkage, which the department describes as its own responsibility under the scheme: arranging where the group's produce will be sold.
• Convergence with existing structures — Mahila Shakti Kendras, self-help group federations and the state rural livelihood mission, so that a group is not building everything from scratch.

The Uttar Pradesh budget for 2021-22 proposed an outlay of about Rs 200 crore for the scheme. Separate state statements have quoted a figure of about Rs 100 crore for particular years, and a further Rs 32 crore was budgeted for setting up Mahila Shakti Kendras in the state. Because the allocation changes with each annual budget, the figure to trust is the one in the current year's budget document rather than any single news report.

A note of caution. Various private websites publish precise per-group figures for this scheme, most commonly a revolving fund of a fixed amount per self-help group. That figure is not published on the Women Welfare Department's own pages, so it is not repeated here as fact. Ask the District Probation Officer what the sanctioned per-group support is in the current financial year before planning around any number you read online.

What documents are required?

How to apply for Mahila Samarthya Yojana

1. Join or form a self-help group in your village or ward if you are not already a member. The Block Mission Manager of the rural livelihood mission and the anganwadi supervisor both help with group formation, and there is no fee for it.
2. Open and operate a group bank account, hold regular meetings and maintain a savings record. A group with a clean six-month record is far more likely to be selected than a newly formed one.
3. Decide the activity the group will take up, food processing, dairy, tailoring, handicraft or a similar cottage trade based on what is available locally, and pass a written group resolution.
4. Approach the District Probation Officer at your district headquarters, who is the officer handling Women Welfare Department schemes in Uttar Pradesh, or your Block Mission Manager if the group is already mission-linked. Ask specifically for the Mahila Samarthya Yojana proposal format.
5. Submit the group proposal with the registration papers, the bank passbook, the members' Aadhaar cards and photographs, and the activity plan. Collect a receipt.
6. Attend the training when the group is selected. Training attendance is usually the condition on which the rest of the support is released.

How to follow up on your application

1. Return to the District Probation Officer's office with your receipt and ask whether the group proposal has been forwarded to the Directorate.
2. Ask your Block Mission Manager whether the group has been listed for the next training batch, since training is normally the first tangible step.
3. Watch the group's bank account for any credit, and keep the passbook updated so the group can account for what it received.
4. For an unanswered application, file a grievance on jansunwai.up.nic.in or call 181, the Uttar Pradesh Women Power Line.

Common reasons a group is not selected

• Group not registered or not active, with no meeting or savings record.
• No group bank account, so there is no route to release support.
• Activity plan not linked to a local resource or a real market, which is the core test the scheme applies.
• Individual application filed without a group behind it.
• Documents of members incomplete, most often a missing Aadhaar or a name mismatch between Aadhaar and the bank account.

Help and grievance redressal

• District Probation Officer of your district, the primary contact for all Women Welfare Department schemes in Uttar Pradesh.
• Block Mission Manager for self-help group formation and training batches.
• 181 Women Power Line, the state women's helpline.
• jansunwai.up.nic.in for a written grievance with a tracking number.
• Directorate of Women Welfare, 8th Floor, Jawahar Bhavan, Ashoka Marg, Lucknow 226001.

Uttar Pradesh Mahila Samarthya Yojana charges no fee at any stage, and there is no authorised online agent for it. Because the scheme has no dedicated public application portal, any website that offers to register your group for a payment is not acting for the Government of Uttar Pradesh.