ITANAGAR, Sep 11: The four-day Zone 1 Workshop on the National Supportive Supervision Strategy Framework (NSSF) concluded at the State Banquet Hall here on Friday, with eight States and a Union Territory committing to build strong, sustainable, self-reliant and scalable Cluster Level Federations (CLFs).
Around 80 representatives from the National Mission Management Unit (NMMU), National Resource Persons (NRPs) and State Mission Management Units (SMMUs) of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, Tripura and the Union Territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands participated in the workshop.
The concluding day featured a special plenary, followed by State presentations and discussions on the way forward. The sessions focused on consolidating field-level observations and translating the learnings into State Action Plans.
In her welcome address, Chief Executive Officer-cum-State Mission Director, ArSRLM, Sangeeta Yirang, stressed the need to move beyond assessing whether a CLF is merely functioning and instead focus on whether it has the capacity to govern and sustain itself while improving the lives of its members.
Secretary, Rural Development and Panchayati Raj, Dr Sonal Swaroop, said strong community institutions require trust, capable leadership, regular engagement and responsive systems. She highlighted the NSSF’s shift from compliance-based monitoring towards capability building and community ownership, particularly in Arunachal Pradesh’s geographically challenging context.
Joint Secretary, Rural Livelihoods-I, Ministry of Rural Development, Amit Shukla, outlined the vision of developing scalable and self-reliant CLFs and set a target of establishing 30 such CLFs in Zone 1 by March 2027.
He outlined a four-stage institutional pathway—Establish, Deepen, Sustain and Leadership—to help CLFs progressively develop the systems, capacity and leadership required to function independently. He urged participating States to convert workshop learnings into concrete State Action Plans with clearly defined responsibilities and measurable outcomes towards building “Viksit CLFs”.
MLA and Advisor to Minister RD, Taniya Soki, emphasised the need to develop capable women leaders who can guide Self-Help Groups (SHGs), maintain transparent systems and address local challenges. She said supportive supervision should be based on listening to communities, developing solutions with them and gradually enabling institutions to take independent decisions.
Addressing the gathering, RD & PR Minister Ojing Tasing highlighted the transformative role of women-led institutions and stressed that CLFs must have capable leadership, transparent systems, stable finances and the ability to address local challenges.
He said supportive supervision should involve working alongside community institutions while progressively enabling them to take ownership and lead independently.
Highlighting Arunachal Pradesh’s progress, Tasing said nearly one lakh women have been mobilised into 15,999 SHGs, with 1,488 Primary Level Federations and 91 CLFs formed. Around 36,000 Potential Lakhpati Didis have been identified, while 16,092 women have achieved Lakhpati Didi status.
He urged participating States to place CLF leaders at the centre of decision-making, convert field observations into measurable actions and establish a strong network of mentors and resource persons.
The workshop concluded with State presentations and formulation of State Action Plans, providing a roadmap for implementing the lessons and field-level observations.
The four-day workshop reinforced a shared vision of moving from supervision to ownership, handholding to leadership and institutional dependence to sustainability, with participating States and the UT reaffirming their commitment to developing strong, self-reliant, sustainable and community-led CLFs.