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Aajeevika - National Rural Livelihoods Mission (NRLM) was launched by the Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD), Government of India in June 2011.
Aided in part through investment support by the World Bank, the Mission aims at creating efficient and effective institutional platforms of the rural poor, enabling them to increase household income through sustainable livelihood enhancements and improved access to financial services.
NRLM set out with an agenda to cover 7 Crore rural poor households, across 600 districts, 6000 blocks, 2.5 lakh Gram Panchayats and 6 lakh villages in the country through self-managed Self Help Groups (SHGs) and federated institutions and support them for livelihoods collectives in a period of 8-10 years.
In addition, the poor would be facilitated to achieve increased access to rights, entitlements and public services, diversified risk and better social indicators of empowerment. DAY-NRLM believes in harnessing the innate capabilities of the poor and complements them with capacities (information, knowledge, skills, tools, finance and collectivization) to participate in the growing economy of the country.
In November 2015, the program was renamed Deendayal Antayodaya Yojana (DAY-NRLM).
The Swarnjayanti Gram SwarozgarYojana (SGSY) was a flagship programme of the Ministry of Rural Development. It was started in 1999 and was restructured in FY 2010-11 for implementation as the National Rural Livelihoods Mission. The SGSY aimed at providing sustainable income to rural BPL households through income generating assets/economic activities in order to bring them out of poverty.
Evaluation of the SGSY by National Institute of Rural Development (NIRD), Bankers Institute of Rural Development (BIRD) and several others institutions showed mixed results.
Out of estimated 25 million households organized into SHGs until 2010, only 22% succeeded in accessing bank credit. The studies showed that there were significant variations in the extent of mobilization of poor SHGs and the quality of their operation. The one-off assetization programme focusing on single livelihood activity did not meet multiple livelihood requirements of the poor. Often, the capital investment was provided up-front as a subsidy, without adequate investment in social mobilization or group formation.
Furthermore, uneven geographical spread of SHGs, high attrition rates among members of SHGs, and lack of adequate banking sector response impeded the program performance. Several states did not fully invest the funds received under SGSY. This fact indicated a lack of proper delivery systems and dedicated efforts for skill training and building capacity for resource absorption among the rural poor. There was a considerable mismatch between program capacity and program requirements. Absence of collective institutions in the form of SHG federations precluded the poor from accessing higher order support services for productivity enhancement, marketing linkages or risk management
It is in this context that the Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD), Government of India (GoI) constituted a Committee on Credit Related Issues under SGSY (under the Chairmanship of Prof. Radhakrishna) to examine various aspects of the scheme implementation. The Committee recommended adoption of a ‘Livelihoods Approach’ to rural poverty elimination. The approach encompassed the following four inter-related tasks:
The government accepted the recommendation of the Committee and restructured SGSY into National Rural Livelihoods Mission (NRLM) in FY 2010-11 to provide a sharper and greater focus as well as momentum for poverty reduction. The decision also aimed to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) by 2015. The Framework for Implementation for N.R.L.M was approved by the Ministry on 9th December, 2010 and the Mission was formally launched on 3rd June, 2011.
NRLM implementation is in a Mission Mode. This enables (a) shift from the present allocation based strategy to a demand driven strategy enabling the states to formulate their own livelihoods-based poverty reduction action plans, (b) focus on targets, outcomes and time bound delivery, (c) continuous capacity building, imparting requisite skills and creating linkages with livelihoods opportunities for the poor, including those emerging in the organized sector, and (d) monitoring against targets of poverty outcomes. As NRLM follows a demand driven strategy, the States have the flexibility to develop their livelihoods-based perspective plans and annual action plans for poverty reduction. The overall plans would be within the allocation for the state based on inter-se poverty ratios.
"To reduce poverty by enabling the poor households to access gainful self-employment and skilled wage employment opportunities, resulting in appreciable improvement in their livelihoods on a sustainable basis, through building strong grassroots institutions of the poor."
