By IANS,
New Delhi : United Progressive Alliance (UPA) chairperson Sonia Gandhi will launch the National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM) in Banswara district of Rajasthan Friday as a flagship programme of the UPA-II government which will reach out to Below Poverty Line (BPL) households through self-help groups.
Announcing this here Wednesday, Rural Development Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh said the mission aims to involve at least one member of seven crore rural BPL families, preferably women, in self-help groups (SHGs).
“It is a major initiative towards inclusive development with the aim of taking the poor out of poverty…It is a flagship scheme of UPA-II,” Deshmukh said.
He said that Swarnajayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana, which was being implemented by the rural development ministry from 1999, has been restructured as NRLM.
The previous programme brought into focus shortcomings like uneven mobilisation of rural poor, insufficient capacity building of beneficiaries, low credit mobilisation and lack of professionals to implement the scheme.
The minister said the NRLM will enhance existing livelihood options of the poor, build skills for job market, and nurture self-employment.
He said the NRLM is based on success in states such as Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh where social mobilisation have led to significant reduction in poverty.
“The role of banks will be of prime importance under NRLM as a source of credit for the poor at reasonable rates,” Deshmukh said.
The minister added that there was no dearth of funds and the government had allocated Rs.3,000 crore for NRLM in this fiscal. Along with subsidy and bank loans, the total delivery under the programme will be Rs.9,000 crore in about a year.
He said while the country was registering a growth rate of around 8 percent, the number of poor was also increasing.
Deshmukh said the success of NRLM depended on efficiency of state governments.
Ministry officials said the NRLM will offer skill development to rural BPL youths by matching aptitude with job requirements. It also has provisions for tie-up with private sector for placement.
The NRLM will reach all 6,000 blocks of the country by the end of the Twelfth Five Year Plan in 2017, they added.
The officials said the NRLM will be led by poor themselves and utilize services of community resource persons who have themselves come out of poverty through self-help groups.
They said that around 10 lakh new such self-help groups would be formed during the remaining period of the Eleventh Five Year Plan.
NRLM provides for spending up to Rs.7,500 on training and capacity building of every beneficiary. To ensure institutional arrangement for skill development, Rural Self Employment Training Institutes will be set up in all districts of the country.
The NRLM also proposes to provide a subsidy of Rs.15,000 to individual beneficiaries of general category and Rs.20,000 to beneficiaries from the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes, and people with disabilities.
For self-help groups, subsidy will be Rs.20,000 per capita, subject to a maximum of Rs.2,50,000.