National Rural Livelihood Mission to be launched in Oct
The National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM), an ambitious scheme of the UPA government to eradicate poverty in rural areas, will be launched in October, Rural Development Minister C P Joshi said today.
"We are going to launch NRLM in October. Date and location for the launching of the scheme, however, has not yet be finalised," he told reporters here.
The NRLM has been designed by restructuring the existing 10-year-old village self-employment scheme Swarnajayanti Gram Swarojgar Yojna of the Rural Development Ministry on the recommendations of various committees to rectify shortcomings.
The programme aims at reducing poverty through promotion of diversified and gainful self-employment and skilled wage employment opportunities.
It broadly adopts as its objectives universal social mobilisation, universal financial inclusion, training and capability building for self employment, enhanced package of economic assistance for setting up of micro enterprises, convergence and larger role for SHGs and their federations, and skill development and placement for wage employment.
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) had approved the scheme in June this year and the funds requirement for it was pegged at Rs 16,400 crore for the last two years of the 11th Plan including Rs 2,984 crore already allocated for the current financial year.
Joshi said the scheme will address the needs of about 6.5 crore poor rural households.
The Minister said that Under the scheme, loan will be provided to the beneficiaries of the scheme through self-help groups to support their self-employment projects.
The Ministry's assessment and various studies show that a poor family, even the poorest one, can come out of poverty in 6-8 years, provided they have a good handholding support system and are able to access at least Rs 1 lakh in several doses, he said.
The programme will ensure that at least one person from each family, preferably women, is a member of a self-help groups. "These groups will nurtured systematically," a ministry official said.
The NRLM will also focus on rural youth and will enable them to enhance their skills so that they are placed in jobs in semi-urban and urban growth centres. he said.
The mission will have a holistic approach to improve livelihood system of the poor by covering education, health, insurance and other aspects through convergence with programmes of other ministries and departments in place, he added.
