From savings groups to solar entrepreneurs: Telangana’s SHG women take the leap
Women's self-help groups in Telangana are transitioning from savings collectives to owners of megawatt-scale solar power projects under the Indira Mahila Shakti programme. This initiative aims to empower rural women by making them operators of productive assets with government support.
Why it matters
It represents a shift in rural development models, moving from welfare-based aid to sustainable, asset-backed economic empowerment.
On a rocky stretch of land in Vikarabad district, rows of solar panels stand as a symbol of a new ambition for Telangana’s women’s self-help groups (SHGs).
The SHGs that began as collectives built around savings and credit is now evolving into a model of asset ownership, with women’s federations, or Samakhyas, taking charge of megawatt-scale solar power projects under the Indira Mahila Shakti (IMS) programme.
“It was a great surprise when we were told that a solar unit would be allotted to our federation. We had never imagined taking up such a major venture in our lives,” says 38-year-old treasurer of the Vikarabad Zilla Samakhya K. Bhagyalaxmi recalling the excitement.
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