Aajeevika - National Rural Livelihoods Mission (NRLM)

By.India Development Foundation  (Pradeep Rathore Mob.09452214232)
http://www.pradeeprathoreji.blogspot.in/
http://www.idfgroup.blogspot.in/  

  
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 has 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 their rights, entitlements and public services, diversified risk and better social indicators of empowerment. 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.

About Aajeevika

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.

NRLM Mission

"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."

NRLM Guiding Principles

• Poor have a strong desire to come out of poverty, and they have innate capabilities
• Social mobilization and building strong institutions of the poor is critical for unleashing the innate capabilities of the poor.
• An external dedicated and sensitive support structure is required to induce the social mobilization, institution building and empowerment process.
• Facilitating knowledge dissemination, skill building, access to credit, access to marketing, and access to other livelihoods services underpins this upward mobility.

NRLM Values

The core values which guide all the activities under NRLM are as follows:

• Inclusion of the poorest, and meaningful role to the poorest in all the processes
• Transparency and accountability of all processes and institutions
• Ownership and key role of the poor and their institutions in all stages – planning, implementation, and, monitoring
• Community self-reliance and self-dependence

 

NRLM would set up dedicated sensitive support units at the National, State, district and sub-district levels, to catalyze social mobilization, build institutions, capacities and skills, facilitate financial inclusion and access to financial services, support livelihoods and convergence and partnerships with various programmes and stakeholders. These units would be staffed with professionally competent and dedicated human resources.

• At the national level, there is an NRLM Advisory Committee (NRLM-AC) , chaired by the Union Minster of Rural Development.
• As a policymaking body, it would set the NRLM overall vision, direction and priorities and review the overall progress.
• NRLM Coordination Committee (NRLM-CC), chaired by Secretary, Rural Development, MoRD, would oversee NRLM to ensure that its objectives are achieved in time. NRLM Empowered Committee (NRLM-EC) would review and approve the State Perspective and Implementation Plans and Annual Action Plans and release the funds to SRLMs.
• The Joint Secretary/Additional Secretary, NRLM, MoRD leads NRLM as Mission Director and head of its National Mission Management Unit (NMMU), comprising multidisciplinary team of professionals from open market on contract, and requisite support staff.
• At the state level, the State Rural Livelihoods Mission (SRLM) constituted by State Government, would oversee the implementation of all NRLM related activities in the state. An autonomous body under the State Government, SRLM would be incorporated as a society, trust or company. State Mission Management Unit (SMMU): SRLM would implement the NRLM activities in the state through an SMMU, at the state level, headed by a full-time State Mission Director (SMD). A multidisciplinary SMMU team would comprising of experts in Social Inclusion, Financial Inclusion, Livelihoods, Programme Management, Programme Support etc., would support the CMD in implementing NRLM in the state.
• District Mission Management Unit (DMMU): The DMMU of the SRLM would be responsible for meeting NRLM objectives and implementing NRLM activities in the district. DMMU, linked suitably with DRDA, would be a facilitating and support unit for field structures. A multidisciplinary DMMU, led by District Mission Manager (DMM), hired from open market on contract or on deputation from Government, includes functional specialists in Social Inclusion, Financial Inclusion, Livelihoods, Capacity Building, Programme Management, Programme Support etc., and support staff, as required. These specialists and staff would be hired in a phased manner, as required, on contract or on deputation.

Support Structures at Sub-district level: The Sub-district level Support Structure is either –

• a Block Mission Management Unit (BMMU) led by a Block Mission Manager (BMM) and consisting of 3-5 spearhead teams; or
• a Project Facilitation Team at cluster (sub-block) level

The members of sub-district structure(s), including the BMMs, if any, would be recruited from the open market or on deputation.

 

Year wise break up in terms of coverage of districts and blocks as envisaged by NRLM:

Aajeevika Skills

Aajeevika Skills is the skill and placement initiative of the Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India (MoRD). It evolved out of the need to diversify incomes of the rural poor and to cater to the occupational aspirations of their youth. The programme’s focus is on skilling and placement in the formal sector for rural youth who are poor. Aajeevika Skills has its origins in the ‘Special Projects’ component of the Swarnajayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana (SGSY).

Financial Inclusion

Experience from large scale projects shows access to repeat finance, at affordable price, for desired amount and customised repayment terms is crucial for poor and vulnerable group of the society, to meet their consumption, exit debt trap and investment in livelihood assets.

Based on the eligibility criteria, the mission would provide financial support to the institutions of poor with intent to inject financial resources into the institutions of poor for meeting their credit needs for both for consumption purposes and also for investment in livelihoods promotion. This fund would be eventually a corpus /capital resource for institutions of the poor. The poorest and the most vulnerable groups would be given priority for capital subsidy. Largely this fund is expected to be used for on-lending to the SHGs for providing financial assistance to meet their livelihoods other essential needs. Each state will strategise the routing of the financial assistance to the institutions of the poor both in the intensive and non-intensive blocks within the overall guidelines provided in the NRLM 'Framework for Implementation'.

NRLM will provide interest subsidy to the rural poor in order to access credit at 7% rate of interest to make their investment more viable. Interest subsidy would be performance linked on a long term engagement with banks over the entire credit cycle.

Banks have a critical role in providing services including opening savings accounts for community groups, SHGs and their federations; deposit savings; provide credit and remittances. NRLM would develop strategic partnerships with major banks and insurance companies at various levels, to create enabling conditions for banks/insurance companies and the poor for a mutual rewarding relationship (both supply and demand side of rural finance value chain). On the demand side NRLM will ensure that financial literacy, counselling services on savings, credit and insurance and trainings on micro-investment Planning are embedded in capacity building of all SHGs. 'Bank Mitras' (customer relationship managers selected from among the community) will be positioned in banks for improving quality of banking and insurance services to poor clients. On the supply side, NRLM will forge partnerships with banks for reaching out to all poor, leveraging IT mobile technologies and institutions of poor and youth as business facilitators and business correspondents.

NRLM will ensure universal coverage of micro-insurance services, particularly to cover life, health and asset risks of the poor and vulnerable households, by seeking convergence with the insurance schemes of Government of India. 

By.India Development Foundation

Thanks and Regards 

 

By.India Development Foundation  (Pradeep Rathore Mob.09452214232)
http://www.pradeeprathoreji.blogspot.in/
http://www.idfgroup.blogspot.in/