UPSRLM Swayam Sahayata Samuh (Self-Help Group) Programme, Uttar Pradesh

What is the UPSRLM Swayam Sahayata Samuh programme?

The Uttar Pradesh State Rural Livelihood Mission (UPSRLM) is the state agency that implements the national rural livelihoods programme, DAY-NRLM, in Uttar Pradesh. It sits under the state's Rural Development Department. Its core method is the swayam sahayata samuh, the self-help group, or SHG.

The idea is simple and it has not changed since the mission began. Rural women from poor households are organised into a group of 10 to 20 members from the same village. The group meets regularly, each member saves a small fixed amount, and the pooled savings are lent internally to members who need money. Once the group has demonstrated that it can save, lend and recover reliably, the mission puts external money into it; first a revolving fund to enlarge the pool, later a community investment fund against an approved plan, and eventually bank credit at scale.

Three structural facts are worth understanding before anything else, because they explain most of what confuses new members:

• There is no individual application. A woman does not apply to UPSRLM. She joins the group in her village. No online form exists for individual enrolment, and anyone offering to "register you with UPSRLM online" for a fee is not describing a real process.
• Money goes to the group, not to the member. Mission funds are credited to the SHG's own bank account. The group then decides internally who borrows what. Nobody gets a personal grant.
• Funds are earned by grading, not by application. Each tranche is released only after the group is graded and found to be functioning. A group with poor records does not get the next fund, however long it has existed.

Above the group sit two more layers. Groups in a village federate into a village organisation, and village organisations federate into a cluster level federation. These federations handle grading, route funds, and hold the group accountable. The block mission management unit is the mission's own office at block level, and the District Mission Manager oversees the district.

Who is eligible to join a self-help group?

You can join if:

• You are a rural woman resident of Uttar Pradesh living in the village where the group is formed.
• Your household is among the poor and vulnerable households the mission targets, identified through the participatory identification of poor process and the mission's own household lists.
• You are willing to attend regular meetings, save a fixed amount regularly, and repay internal loans on time.
• Only one woman per household joins a group, which is the standard rule so that coverage spreads across households rather than concentrating.

You cannot join, or are not eligible, if:

• You live in an urban area covered by the urban livelihoods mission rather than the rural mission. Urban SHGs come under a different programme.
• Your household is already represented in an SHG by another woman. Two members from the same household in the same group is not permitted.
• You are unwilling or unable to maintain the Panchsutra disciplines, since a member who does not attend or save weakens the whole group's grading.
• You want an individual grant rather than group membership. UPSRLM does not pay individual cash benefits to women who are not part of a functioning group.

For the group as a unit, the gate is different again. A group cannot receive a revolving fund or community investment fund if it has not completed the minimum period of regular functioning, if its meeting minutes and savings register are incomplete, if internal lending has not started, or if its bank account is not operational.

What documents are required?

How to join and get your group funded

1. Find the group in your village. Ask the existing SHG members, the village organisation, the community resource person, or the block mission management unit whether a group is open for new members or a new one is being formed. This is the real entry point.
2. Form or join the group of 10 to 20 women from the village, agree the bye-laws, elect office bearers, and fix the savings amount and the meeting day. Record all of it in the minutes book.
3. Open the SHG's bank account in the group's name at the nearest bank branch, operated jointly by the authorised office bearers. Take the group resolution and members' Aadhaar copies.
4. Save and lend for the qualifying period. Meet regularly, collect savings every meeting, start internal lending, and write everything down. This period is not a formality; it is what the grading measures.
5. Get the group graded. The village organisation or cluster level federation grades the group against the Panchsutra, regular meetings, regular savings, regular internal lending, regular repayment and up-to-date books.
6. Receive the revolving fund into the group account once grading is cleared. The fund adds to the group's own corpus and is lent internally.
7. Prepare a micro-credit plan setting out what each member will borrow for and how she will repay, and submit it through the village organisation for the community investment fund.
8. Take bank linkage. With a savings record and a repayment record, the group approaches the bank for a cash credit limit or a term loan, which is what scales the members' livelihoods beyond what the mission's own funds can.

What is the Panchsutra and why does everything depend on it?

The Panchsutra is the five-point discipline the national mission expects of every self-help group:

1. Regular meetings: held on the fixed day, every week or month, with attendance recorded.
2. Regular savings: every member saves the agreed amount at every meeting.
3. Regular internal lending — the pooled savings are lent out, not left idle in the account.
4. Regular repayment, internal loans are recovered on schedule.
5. Up-to-date books of account: minutes, savings register and loan ledger written up at each meeting.

Every fund release depends on these. A group that meets irregularly, or whose register has gaps, is downgraded, and a downgraded group does not receive the next tranche. Members often believe funds are delayed by the office. Far more often the group's own records are the reason.

What livelihood support comes after the funds?

UPSRLM's purpose is not the fund itself but the livelihood it starts. Once a group is functioning, members access training and enterprise support through the mission; farm and non-farm livelihood activities, producer groups and collectives, and links to markets. Members are also connected to bank branches and to business correspondents, and a woman with a repayment track record inside her SHG is far more likely to get an individual bank loan than one without.

The group is also the delivery point for several other rural programmes, which is why joining one matters beyond the money. Federations are used to route information about pensions, housing, health cover and skilling, so the SHG member tends to hear about entitlements first.

Why groups get stuck

• Irregular meetings and savings, which stops grading dead.
• Registers not written up, so functioning cannot be evidenced.
• Internal lending never started, leaving the savings idle in the bank.
• Bank account dormant or the operating office bearers changed without the bank being informed.
• Micro-credit plan not prepared or unrealistic, so the community investment fund is not released.
• Default on a bank loan by the group, which closes off further credit.
• Two members from the same household, or an urban member, found at verification.

Where to get help and complain

• Community resource person and village organisation in your own village. The fastest route for most problems.
• Block Mission Management Unit of UPSRLM, which holds the block's group records and grading.
• District Mission Manager, for a group whose fund release is stalled.
• Rural Development Department, Uttar Pradesh toll-free 1800-180-5145.
• Jansunwai at jansunwai.up.nic.in, for a written grievance with a trackable complaint number.

Joining a group, grading and fund release are all free. If any person asks for a share of a revolving fund or community investment fund release, report it to the District Mission Manager with the name and the amount, and file the complaint on Jansunwai so that it carries a number.

What this guide could not verify

The exact current rupee amounts of the revolving fund and the community investment fund for Uttar Pradesh could not be confirmed on an official state source at the time of writing, and no figure for either is therefore stated as fact above. These amounts are set under DAY-NRLM norms and are revised from time to time. Ask the block mission management unit for the amount applicable to your group's stage in the current year rather than relying on a figure quoted on a private website.

How to check your group's status

There is no individual application to track under this programme, so there is also no personal tracking number, SMS alert or online portal login for a member to check. What can be tracked is the group's own standing, since every fund is released to the group and not to a person.

1. Ask for the group's latest grading result first. The village organisation or the cluster level federation holds the grading record. A group's status is really its grading status: whether it currently meets the Panchsutra and which fund it has already drawn.
2. Check the minutes and savings register. Since grading is based entirely on these records, a member can see for herself how the group is placed by looking at whether meetings, savings and internal lending entries are current and complete in the group's own books.
3. Ask the community resource person for the group's fund history. She or the village organisation can confirm which tranche (revolving fund, community investment fund, or bank linkage) the group has already received and what is pending.
4. Go to the block mission management unit for anything beyond the village level, such as a community investment fund request that has been sitting with the federation for a while without a decision. The block office holds the file once it moves past the village organisation.
5. Escalate to the District Mission Manager if the block office cannot explain a delay, since fund releases beyond the revolving fund typically need district-level clearance against the group's micro-credit plan.
6. Call the Rural Development Department helpline, 1800-180-5145, if none of the above gives a clear answer, or file a written grievance on Jansunwai at jansunwai.up.nic.in, which issues a trackable complaint number that a member can quote in any follow-up call.

Because the group, not the individual, is the unit that has a status, a member checking on her own money should really be asking her group's office bearers to check the group's status with the village organisation, rather than expecting a personal reference number of her own.