The Chief Minister's Office of Uttarakhand, on Monday, 25 May 2026, highlighted how a Cluster Level Federation in Haripur village of the Kalsi area, Dehradun, has established cold and hot pressed oil processing units under the Gramotthan project, enabling rural women to achieve financial self-reliance.

Context

The post, shared by the official account of the Chief Minister's Office, states: 'Dehradun ke Kalsi kshetra ke Haripur gaon mein Cluster Level Federation ne Gramotthan pariyojana ke antargat cold aur hot pressed oil unit sthapit kar mahilaon ko aatmnirbhar banaya hai' — ('In Haripur village of the Kalsi area of Dehradun, the Cluster Level Federation has established cold and hot pressed oil units under the Gramotthan project, making women self-reliant.')

Haripur is located in the Kalsi block of Dehradun district, a predominantly rural and partially tribal area in Uttarakhand. The establishment of an oil processing unit there represents a direct intervention in a community where agricultural livelihoods are central.

Policy Backdrop

The Gramotthan project is an Uttarakhand state initiative designed to promote village-level production units and women's economic participation through cluster-based enterprises. It operates in alignment with the National Rural Livelihoods Mission (NRLM), the centrally sponsored programme launched in 2011 to build self-help group federations and support sustainable micro-enterprises for rural women across India.

Cluster Level Federations are second-tier institutions formed by aggregating self-help groups. They provide member groups with access to credit, marketing support, and enterprise development resources — making them a critical link between grassroots women's collectives and larger market systems.

Cold and hot pressed oil units are considered low-capital, locally appropriate enterprises, particularly suited to hill districts where oilseeds are part of the agricultural landscape. They require minimal infrastructure while delivering value addition at the village level itself.

Stakeholders and Impact

The primary beneficiaries are rural women in and around Haripur village who are members of self-help groups affiliated with the Cluster Level Federation. By operating an oil processing unit collectively, these women gain a direct income source without migrating to urban centres for work.

Uttarakhand has faced persistent out-migration, particularly from hill districts, as limited local employment pushes working-age residents toward cities. Agro-processing enterprises anchored in village federations are seen as one mechanism to reverse that trend by creating dignified, locally rooted livelihoods.

The broader self-help group ecosystem in the state stands to benefit as well — a successful model in Kalsi can serve as a replicable template for other Cluster Level Federations across Uttarakhand's hill districts.

What's Next

Attention will now turn to whether the state government scales the Gramotthan model to additional villages and federations, and whether dedicated budget allocations are made to expand agro-processing capacity across hill districts. The rollout of similar cold and hot pressed oil units — or analogous value-addition enterprises — under the same federation framework would signal a systematic, rather than one-off, approach to rural women's empowerment in Uttarakhand.