MEPMA In Bangaru Telangana

Mission for elimination of poverty in Municipal areas(MEPMA)

The Mission for Elimination of Poverty in Municipal Areas (MEPMA) is a Government of Telangana Society forming part of Department of Municipal Administration & Urban Development.

It was launched on 1st September, 2007 by the then UPA Chairperson. Sri. K. Chandrasekar Rao, Hon’ble Chief Minister of Telangana is the Chairman of Governing body whereas Hon’ble Minister for Municipal Administration & Urban Development Department is the Vice Chairman. The Principal Secretary, Municipal Administration, is the chairman of MEPMA’s Executive Committee. Mission Director, MEPMA, and her team implement the urban poverty alleviation schemes. The district units are headed by Project Directors.

Vision

All urban poor families will have improved quality of life by accessing services from all organizations through their own strong self reliant and self managed institutions.

Mission

To enable the urban poor particularly the poorest of the poor to eliminate poverty and vulnerability in a sustainable manner and improve their quality of life in urban areas

Empowerment of urban poor women, especially those residing in slums, is the main objective of MEPMA.

a) Forming the urban women into Self Help Groups (SHGs) and encouraging internal savings and internal lending :
Under the aegis of MEPMA 10-12 urban women form into Self Help Groups (SHGs). Around 20 SHGs constitute one Slum Level Federation (SLF) . A Town Level Federation (TLF) comprises of 25-35 SLFs. MEPMA encourages internal savings and internal lending among the members.

- 12.6 lakh women forming into 1.20 lakhs Self Help Groups
- Savings / Corpus of 1.20 lakh Self Help Groups (SHGs) - Rs. 472.80 Cr
- Savings / Corpus of 3958 Slum Level Federations (SLFs) - Rs. 65.34 Cr
- Savings / Corpus of 97 Town Level Federations (TLFs) - Rs.2.07 Crs

b) Disability Intervention :
• As part of Mainstreaming of person’s walk disability is poverty en dictation programmes , total No.of PWD SHGs are 3,886 ith 0.46 Lakes PWD Members.
• Total No.of Town Vikalanga Samakhyas (TVS) are formed - 56
• 53 PWD voluntaries are indentified & trained for social mobilization of PWD support through TLF
• The cooperation of Bhagavan Mahaveer Vilalangula Seva Samakhya MEPMA has facilitated conducting of 11 camps for differently abled persons in 10 district collectors approval.

c) Capacity Building of Community Based Organizations :
For this purpose periodical trainings are organized through - Administrative Staff College of India (ASCI), Centre for Good Governance (CGG), Dr.Marri Chennareddy of Institute for Human Resource Development (MCR HRD), Regional Centre for Urban and Environmental Studies (RCUES) etc. The CRP strategy is being followed in capacity building of SHGs.
• Member's training has been taken up in 55188 SHGs
• Book-keeping training has been imparted to 56599 SHGs.

d) Creating access to credit by providing Bank Linkage :
So far more than Rs.8600.00 Crores of bank loans have been provided to 2.94 lakhs SHGs includes repeated dosages . The idea is to provide soft loans to meet day-to-day needs like education, health and other social needs and take up income generation activities to improve their economic condition. The main motto is to protect the urban women from the clutches of money lenders, micro finance institutions etc., who charge exorbitant rates of interest.

The Govt of A.P’s interventions earlier through Pavala Vaddi (Interest at 3% per annum) Scheme have led to reimbursement of interest portion to the extent of Rs.333.85 Crores.VLR scheme it is implemented from 1-1-2012, under the scheme the taotal intrest will be reimbursed to the eligible SHGs. As on date eligible VLR amount is Rs. 121.62 Cr to be disbursed SHGs and Rs.11.50 Cr has been credited to SHG accounts.

e) Loans with Subsidies for self employment units :
Undesr Urban Self Employment Programme (USEP) MEPMA would arrange subsidy of 25% of the total loan for setting up Micro Business Enterprise.
• So far 15,170 units have been established under USEP
Under UWSP, towards setting up of group enterprises, MEPMA provides subsidy to the extent of 35% of the total loan amount.
• So far 110 units have been established under UWSP.

f) STHREE NIDHI (State Level Women Credit Cooperative Society)
Sthree Nidhi is a Govt.of A.P. Credit Institution formed as a society. It is a credit cooperative society of the SHG Women, by the SHG women and for the SHG women . Out of the total of 10 Directors on the Board of Sthree Nidhi , three Directors are from the Urban SHGs. It aims at providing “Credit Gap Funding” arising out of “Ban on Micro Finance Institutions” . Each Slum Federation is being provided with a mobile phone and CUG Sim Card. Within 48 hours of receipt of request for loan through the mobile phone, credit is arranged at the door step of the SHG by way of direct credit to the concerned SLF account. Loans availed in Sthree Nidhi are also eligible for Vaddi Lenni Runalu(VLR),on regularly repayment of loans. As on date 884 SLFs have availed Sthree Nidhi loans amounting to 35.03 Cr.

g) Social Security Measures :
1. ABHAYA HASTHAM (ABH) : Insurance linked old age pension schemes :
Against the contribution of Rs 365/- per member per year, they would be entitled for availing all Insurance benefits to the subscribers and scholarships to their children’s as applicable under JBY and Rs 500/- as pension per month after completion of 60 years of age.
4.10 lakh members have been enrolled under ABH, out of which 19967 members are getting pensions. 3010 No. of death claims are settled. 117031 No of children are provided with scholarships.

2. JANA SREE BIMA YOJANA (JBY) : Scholarship linked insurance scheme :
Against the contribution of Rs 100/- per member per year, the members would be entitled for Rs 30000/- / Rs 75000/- on natural death / accidental death and scholarships of Rs 1200/- per child up to two children studying 9thto 12th standard in their family.
6.40 lakhs members are enrolled under Janasree Bima Yojana (JBY) during 2013-14

h) Placement linked skill trainings : 1.09 lakhs of unemployed youth are provided placement linked skill trainings and 0.79lakhs of them are given placements in various sectors. Under the novel scheme of RAJIV YUVA KIRANALU, MEPMA aim set providing skill training and placement to 4 lakhs unemployed youth by March, 2015.

i) Market linkage to the SHG entrepreneurs and their products:
MEPMA facilitated marketing to SHG products by providing access to marketing the products in NUMAISH and regional level exhibitions conducted in major cities like Warangal, Vijayawada & Tirupati etc.,

j) Rajiv Awas Yojana (RAY) towards slum free of A.P.
MEPMA has under taken upgrading the slums through in-situ development for providing infrastructure and housing ,to bring them on par with the rest of the city. The Hon’ble Chief Minister has laid the foundation stone for insitu development of Keshavnagar Slum of Serilingampally of GHMC.
• The Govt. of India has sellected 11 towns (GHMC, GVMC, VMC, Tirupati, Warangal,Kurnool, Rajahmandry, Kakinada, Guntur,Nellore and Ramagundam) for implementation of RAY.
• In 3 Mission cities, 4 pilot projects have been approved with an outlay of Rs 166.00 crors
( Keshava nagar-GHMC, Suryateja nagar-GVMC, NS Bose nagar & Dhall Mill area-VMC).
Towards infrastructure development, 100% funding is borne by the Govt. Towards the cost of dwelling units 70-90% is funded by Govt/local body.

k) Better Health & Nutrition awareness :
1.4826 Health CRPs are trained for orienting SHG Members on Community Health & Nutritition.
2.3864 SLFs have mobilized health savings to a tune of Rs 3.50 Crs
To reduce the vulnerability of slum residents to diseases and ill health , so far more than 230 integrated Health Camps have been organized by MEPMA in the slum localities.
l) So far 0.33 lakhs street vendors have been profiled by MEPMA to organize them into groups in the lines of SHGs.
m) Community Resources Centers (CRCs) & Mahila Swasakthi Bhavans (MSBs):
To provide the SHG women with a platform for interaction and to take up developmental activities under their groups and associations 134 CRCs have been sanctioned and construction has been completed for 81 CRC. A total of 60 Mahila Swasakthi Bhavans have been sanctioned are under construction.
The main motto of MEPMA is that socio economic development of urban poor should be done a through a participative model.

By.G Rajendra Kumar