Social Work

Women in tribal communities

Dhar district recorded a Scheduled Tribe population of 1,222,814 at the 2011 Census of India — 55.94 per cent of the district total. Of these, 1,142,263 lived in rural areas. Tribal women in such districts have historically recorded lower levels of literacy, formal employment and access to institutional finance than State and national averages.

The recorded social work is directed at this population: women in tribal villages of a district where they form the demographic majority.

Job-oriented training programmes

Job-oriented or vocational training programmes are short-duration courses designed to equip participants with a specific marketable skill, rather than general education. In rural and tribal districts these commonly cover tailoring and garment work, food processing, handicraft and handloom production, dairying and allied agricultural activity, and basic enterprise and financial literacy.

The public record states that such programmes were organised for tribal women. It does not identify the trades, the number of participants, or the locations, and none are stated here.

Self-help groups

A self-help group is a small voluntary association, typically of ten to twenty women from the same locality, who pool regular savings into a common fund and lend from it to members. Once a group establishes a savings and repayment record, it may be linked to a bank for larger credit — the mechanism known in India as SHG–bank linkage.

The model matters in tribal districts because it creates a route to institutional credit for women who hold no collateral and have no individual banking history. It also functions as a collective forum, which is why self-help groups are frequently used as the delivery point for health, nutrition and rights awareness work.

The record states that self-help groups were created and that this enabled financial empowerment. The number of groups, their membership and their credit volumes are not documented in the public record.

Where this sits in policy

Self-help groups and women’s economic participation are long-standing instruments of Indian rural development policy, operating through State rural livelihood missions and, for women and child development specifically, through the Samarthya sub-vertical of Mission Shakti.

In a meeting with the Vice-Minister of Social Development of Guatemala in New York in February 2026, the Ministry of Women and Child Development recorded that Smt. Savitri Thakur shared India’s experience with flagship programmes including Self-Help Groups, Direct Benefit Transfer, PM POSHAN school meals and digital public infrastructure.

From village groups to ministerial review

The same subject matter recurs in her documented ministerial activity. Field visits recorded by the Press Information Bureau include inspection of Anganwadi Centres, One Stop Centres and Child Care Institutions, and review meetings with State governments on the implementation of Mission Shakti, Mission Vatsalya and Saksham Anganwadi & POSHAN 2.0.

These are set out, with dates and sources, on the Parliamentary & Public Work and Media pages.