Explainer: What is the Mahila Kisan Sashaktikaran Pariyojana (MKSP)?
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
January 14, 2020
Mahila Kisan Sashaktikaran Pariyojana was launched in 2011 to help & extend support to women farmers who make up for one-third of the agricultural labour and almost a half of the self-employed farmers. Here is an explainer of the scheme.
Women empowerment is a key driver of development. Variousgovernments have over the years initiated different schemes aimed at improvingsocio-economic and health standards of women.
The case for intervention is acute in rural India, wherewomen face discrimination on various fronts and be a part of the workforce.
Agriculture is the largest employer of women with 80%of economically active women being engaged
in agriculture. Further, women comprise33% of the agricultural labour force and 48% of self-employed farmers.
A sizeable portion of farm households are femaleheaded (16%), especially in cases of widowhood, male-migration etc. In spite ofbeing a key part of the agriculture, women face discrimination in terms oflower wages than man, not having access to various agricultural support systemsetc.
It is in this context that the Government of India launchedthe Mahila
Sashaktikaran Pariyojana (MKSP) in 2011 under National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM). It is currentlybeing run under Deendayal Antodaya Yojana – NRLM (DAY-NRLM). The primary
objective is to improve the statusof women in agriculture and to provide opportunities to enable her.
Sustainable Agriculture based livelihoods for rural
women is key objective of MKSP
MKSP aims to empower women in agriculture by makingsystematic investments which encourages their participation and increases theproductivity. It also focuses on creating and sustaining agriculture-basedlivelihoods for rural women. Another key objective of the MKSP is to providewomen involved in agriculture and related activities access to variousinformation sources and support mechanisms, to gain sustained longer-term benefits.
In addition to these objectives, certain expectedoutcomes are laid out to measure the success of any of the programmes orinterventions under MKSP.
Few of the important
outcomes include: increase in theincomes of the women, improving food and nutritional security, increasing areaunder cultivation, increase in the skills, reduction of drudgery throughenhanced tools & technologies, increasing the visibility of women, developentrepreneurship etc.
Sustainable Agriculture  & Value Chain Development among  key focus areas of MKSP
Various programmes and interventions are initiatedunder MKSP to assist women involved in Agriculture.  These programmes are categorized under thefollowing three components.
Interventions which are related to livestock areintegrated into both Sustainable Agriculture and NTFP projects. The followingare some of the key interventions under each of these programmes.
What is the implementation approach of Projects
under MKSP?
All the projects under MKSP are aimed at providing direct and indirect support to women involved in agriculture and related activities. Various programs are formulated in partnership with skills development organizations, NGOs etc who are working in this space.
The Project Implementing Agency (PIA) oversees theplanning and implantation of the various programmes under MKSP.  The strategy of PIA involves:
Any project which is to be implemented under MKSP goes through multiple stages , from the stage of identifying the need and developing a proposal to implementing the approved project and completing it.  Multiple government and private partners are involved during this process.
Government hascollaborated with multiple organizations for effective implementation andintervention. These organizations are involved in multiple stages includingplanning, intervention and implementation.
Responding to a question in Lok Sabha on 19 November 2019, Union Minister of Rural Development provided the list of organizations with whom the government is collaborating for the implementation of MKSP.
More than 36 lakh Mahila Kisans benefited
through various projects under MKSP
As per the information provided bythe government in the Lok Sabha on 19 November 2019, there are a total of 84projects sanctioned under MKSP across 24 states.
Out of the 273districts targeted, projects under MKSP have been implemented in 238 districts.
More than 33.81 lakh Mahila Kisans were targeted to benefit from the 84 projects sanctioned under MKSP. As per the information provided in Lok Sabha, the projects have overachieved the targets in terms of the number of women who benefitted from the project. A total of  36.06 lakh beneficiaries are covered under these projects. The central government has allocated Rs. 847.5 crores for the approved projects of which Rs. 579.8 is already released as on 30 September 2019.
The higher numbersare primarily due to Andhra Pradesh and Kerala where the achievement is fargreater than the target.
The States ofArunachal Pradesh, J&K, Nagaland etc did not implement any of the projectswith no Mahila Kisans benefitted from these projects.
Uneven
distribution of the projects across the country
Thedistribution of the projects and thus the districts and villages covered underthe scheme is uneven across the country. Out of the 84 sanctioned projects,Andhra Pradesh (14), Jharkhand (11), Telangana(10) and Odisha (9) have a majorshare. More than 50% of the projects under MKSP are being implemented in thesefour states.
Even from a target achieved perspective, the performance is not even across the country. Most of the states where the projects have been sanctioned have not met the specified targets.
AndhraPradesh, Kerala, Bihar and Telangana are the states which have managed toperform better with AP & Kerala achieving beyond the set target.
While the number of beneficiaries is available on the MKSP MIS portal, details of the project area, outcomes as against the project goals are not available.   Availability of such information in the public domain will allow for an objective evaluation of the scheme.
Featured Image: Mahila Kisan Sashaktikaran Pariyojana