Transforming Rural Livelihoods through Digital Empowerment
SHE-LEAPS stands for Self-Help Entrepreneur-Livelihoods and Enterprise Application for Prosperity and Sustainability. It is a digital platform for empowering women associated with Self-Help Groups (SHGs) across rural India. This is being accomplished through a unified platform for enterprise creation and performance tracking. SHE-LEAPS supports livelihood creation, enterprise growth, and financial inclusion for rural women. It supports both farm and non-farm rural enterprises, aiming to build a stronger and more sustainable rural economy.
Figure 1: Logo of SHE-LEAPS
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The SHE-LEAPS mobile application has been developed by the Digital India Corporation, and implemented under the LokOS platform. LokOS is a digital system designed to capture the activities of community-based organizations (CBOs) across India. These include SHGs, Village Organizations, and Cluster Lever Federations. LokOS helps in digitizing CBO activities like maintaining member records, financial transactions, and livelihood records, and tracking convergence initiatives.
SHE-LEAPS was launched on June 29, 2026, at the Rashtriya Gramin Vikas Sammelan held in New Delhi. This two-day conference, themed ‘Gramodaya Se Rashtrodaya’, reviewed the implementation and progress of major rural development schemes. The focus was on formulating strategies to translate the government’s vision of ‘Viksit Gram - Viksit Bharat’.
Nationwide Rollout of SHE-LEAPS
SHE-LEAPS is focused on fulfilling the following objectives:
- Empowering rural SHG women entrepreneurs nationwide.
- Creating and strengthening women-led enterprises in rural areas.
- Integrating rural producers with formal value chains.
- Enhancing the financial inclusion of SHG households.
- Enabling data-driven rural entrepreneurship.
SHE-LEAPS will be implemented in 34 States and UTs. It will assist the State Rural Livelihood Missions in the selected states/UTs. The platform captures real-time enterprise data, thereby improving visibility into rural economic activities. The system, thereby, also strengthens monitoring at multiple levels. It would consequently support both local and national decision-making.
Digital Services for Enterprise Development
SHE-LEAPS captures real-time operational data across sectors and tracks the complete livelihood journey. The platform supports every stage, from profile creation to enterprise performance tracking. It further strengthens digital monitoring, improves governance, and enables better planning, intervention, and informed policy decisions. Services offered by the SHE-LEAPS mobile application are:
Advancing the Lakhpati Didi Initiative
SHE-LEAPS will strengthen the Lakhpati Didi mission by providing end-to-end tracking of income growth and enterprise performance. Recently, the government has increased the target of the Lakhpati Didi scheme from 3 crore to 6 crore women.
The government also plans to release ₹10 lakh crore to benefit Lakhpati Didis over the next five years. This reflects a major commitment of the government towards women’s empowerment. Therefore, the SHE-LEAPS mobile application is an integral part of this plan to support enterprise expansion at scale.
Building a Stronger Women-Led Rural Economy
SHE-LEAPS marks a major step in digital rural transformation by combining digital infrastructure, entrepreneurship, and women’s empowerment. By supporting enterprise growth and strengthening financial inclusion, this platform will help scale the Lakhpati Didi mission nationwide. It is poised to become a key driver of inclusive and sustainable rural transformation.
References
Ministry of Rural Development
https://lokos.dord.gov.in/home
https://x.com/MoRD_GoI/status/2071507758046916762
https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2279029®=6&lang=1
Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.nrlm.gramudyamita&hl=en_IN
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PIB Research