Rural women's skills find a digital marketplace: 1,537 products onboarded on e-SARAS; Uttar Pradesh ranks first in the country – Ministry of Rural Development

Keshav Prasad Maurya stated that Uttar Pradesh is emerging as a leading hub for women's empowerment and rural economic strengthening; this achievement represents not merely sales figures, but a powerful testament to the self-confidence, skills, entrepreneurship, and economic self-reliance of rural women. This initiative of connecting village-based products to the digital marketplace is imparting new momentum to women's entrepreneurship and providing a solid foundation for the state's resolve to create "1 crore Lakhpati Didis."Uttar Pradesh has set a new national record on the eSARAS portal—developed by the Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India, to provide a wide market for products made by Self-Help Groups (SHGs). By June 30, 2026, 1,537 rural products from the state had been onboarded onto eSARAS, with total sales amounting to ₹1.07 crore recorded across platforms. Uttar Pradesh has become the state with the highest number of products onboarded on eSARAS and the first state in the country to record sales exceeding ₹1 crore. Rural women in Uttar Pradesh are evolving beyond being the economic backbone of their families to becoming a new face of the state's rural economy and entrepreneurship. Under the guidance of Deputy Chief Minister Shri Keshav Prasad Maurya, efforts to link the skills of rural women with the market have achieved significant success.According to Mission Director Shri Arun Kumar, special emphasis is being placed on connecting the local, traditional, handicraft, food, and other products of SHG women to the digital marketplace. Products such as wooden items from Bijnor, bags and shirts from Farrukhabad, Khurja pottery from Bulandshahr, footballs from Meerut, wooden crafts from Varanasi, and the famous glass bangles from Firozabad are reaching customers across the country through eSARAS.