SHE MART: Community-Owned Retail Outlets

GoI announces community-owned retail outlets SHE (Self-help Entrepreneur) - Marts to boost rural women entrepreneurs. As part of this initiative, SHE Marts will function as community-owned retail outlets and will be set up within cluster-level federations. As of December 2025, the DAY-NRLM (Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana - National Rural Livelihoods Mission) significantly boosted financial inclusion and rural livelihoods with the mobilization of 10.05 crore rural households into 90.9 lakh Women's Self-Help Groups (SHGs) and strengthening the federated self-help group structures as 31781 Cluster Level Federations (CLFs), mostly as Women's Cooperatives with nationwide training initiatives focusing on statutory compliance and governance. Building on the achievements of the Lakhpati Didi initiative, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Sunday announced the introduction of SHE (Self-help Entrepreneur) Marts to strengthen women-led enterprises in rural areas and enable women to move up the economic value chain. Sitharaman said the government would now support women in taking the “next step from credit-linked livelihood to owners of enterprises.” This will bring a shift towards promoting women as business owners rather than only beneficiaries of livelihood schemes. As part of this initiative, SHE Marts will function as community-owned retail outlets and will be set up within cluster-level federations. These outlets are intended to provide market access to women entrepreneurs while being supported through enhanced and innovative financing instruments. Nirmala Sitharaman said “SHE (Self-help Entrepreneur) marks will be set up as community-owned retail outlets to help women entrepreneurs,” underlining the role of local collectives in running and managing these platforms. #SHE-MART #Budget2026-27 #DAY-NRLM #Women's Cooperatives