Women Self-Help Groups: Pehal uniforms, PEHEL Mart & ₹25,000 awards for rural women in Punjab

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Last Updated: 3 October 2026

Women Self-Help Groups (PSRLM): ~6 lakh rural women in ~58,000 SHGs, backed with a ₹30,000 revolving fund, ₹50,000 community investment fund and loans at 7% interest[1]
-- Pehal: SHG women stitch government school uniforms, earning at home[2][3]
-- PEHEL Mart: marketplace for SHG products, opened Oct 2025[4]

Women SHGs: Mann Govt vs previous 11 years (per year):
-- Impact Progress of upto 400%[5]
-- Revolving fund per SHG doubled from ₹10,000-15,000 to ₹30,000[6]
-- SHG NPA down from 18% to 2.16%[5:1]

Indicator 2011-22 (11 years) 2022-26 (4 years) Per year Per-year change
SHGs formed 29,053 28,734 2,641 → 7,184 2.7x (+172%)
SHG members added 2,97,083 2,90,213 27,008 → 72,553 2.7x (+169%)
Village organisations formed 1,806 2,427 164 → 607 3.7x (+270%)
Revolving fund issued ₹28.59 crore ₹53.03 crore ₹2.60 cr → ₹13.26 cr 5.1x (+410%)
Community Investment Fund beneficiaries 6,234 9,244[6:1] 567 → 2,311 4.1x (+308%)
Loans availed by SHGs ₹171.13 crore ₹631.76 crore[5:2] ₹15.56 cr → ₹157.94 cr 10.2x (+915%)
Non-performing assets 18% 2.16% n/a n/a

1. Women SHG Awards

Mar 2026: 14,100 SHG women entrepreneurs felicitated across Punjab (100 per constituency, 100 per district)
-- the top 100 get ₹25,000 each, state function on 18 Mar 2026[1:1]
-- Beyond funds, women get training, market linkages, banking support and social security schemes[1:2]

2. Pehal: uniforms stitched by rural women

Pehal Project: Uniforms of all Govt school students and police department to be stitched by rural women[2:1]

TARGET: The project will create employment worth crores for 1000s of women to make them financially independent[2:2]

Pilot Project Success: All government schools of Sangrur have been made part of this pilot project for academic session 2023-24
-- Expanded to other districts

Apr 2026 – Bathinda: ~500 women in ~150 groups stitched 46,000 uniforms (target 40,000) in 2025-26, earning ~₹3 crore at ₹60 per uniform; two more centres opened and the target is ~60,000[3:1]

2.1 Pilot Project[2:3]

1.5 crore Turnover: Turnover of Akalgarh team, consisting of 150 members, is going to touch Rs 1.5 crore as of June 2023[7]

  • The project ‘Pehal’ was initiated in 2022 for the Government girls senior secondary school, Sangrur
  • Following the success of the initiative, 2 government schools of Patiala district had also placed orders for stitching uniforms
  • They earn at least ₹600 per set of uniforms
  • The administration has set up a production centre at Akalgarh village of Sunam block for this purpose
  • The facility of stitching uniforms at home is also being provided to local women

2.2 Need for Uniforms[2:4]

  • State Govt provides one set of uniform to each girl/boy student belonging to SC, ST and BPL categories free of cost every year
  • The uniform kit includes
    • A shirt, trousers, winter cap, patka, sweater, a pair of shoes and socks
    • Salvaar and kurti for girl students
  • Punjab education department provides Rs 600 for 1 set
  • This amount was being given to contractors and shopkeepers

2.3 Project Details[2:5]

  • Our mothers/sisters, especially those living in rural areas, have great stitching and weaving skills
  • Govt will utilise these skills and give them employment
  • To set up production units in every household
  • It started with Public School Uniforms but now will also include Police uniforms

Training, Loans & Orders[8]

  • Self-help groups with 10 women each are formed who are provided loans to prepare products under Punjab State Rural Livelihood Mission (PSRLM)
  • The women are imparted training at Rural Self-Employment Training Institute (RSETI)
  • The state government would then give them orders to prepare uniforms

REFERENCES:

  1. https://www.babushahi.com/full-news.php?id=217963 (Punjab Govt Press Release, 3 Mar 2026) ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎

  2. https://www.hindustantimes.com/cities/chandigarh-news/women-shgs-to-stitch-school-uniforms-sangrur-model-to-be-replicated-across-punjab-says-cm-bhagwant-mann-101696014764403.html ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎

  3. https://www.babushahi.com/full-news.php?id=220411 (Punjab Govt Press Release, 29 Apr 2026) ↩︎ ↩︎

  4. https://www.babushahi.com/full-news.php?id=211569 (Punjab Govt Press Release, 1 Oct 2025) ↩︎

  5. https://www.babushahi.com/full-news.php?id=217723 (Punjab Govt Press Release, 26 Feb 2026) ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎

  6. https://yespunjab.com/punjab-women-gaining-economic-independence-as-mann-govt-expands-self-help-groups-tarunpreet-sond/ (Punjab Govt Press Release, 10 Aug 2026; used for revolving fund and CIF beneficiaries) ↩︎ ↩︎

  7. https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/chandigarh/sangrur-women-stitching-together-a-good-future-8686045/ ↩︎

  8. https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/patiala/65-rural-women-trained-in-tailoring-under-pahal-572960 ↩︎

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