Expanding the National Rural Livelihoods Project (NLRP) under NRLM

The Ministry Of Rural Development would be entering into an agreement with the World Bank for soft loan worth US$1 billion (approximately Rs. 4,600 crores) to implement the  National Rural Livelihoods Project (NRLP) under National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM) at Krishi Bhawan on Monday. The distribution of project funds among the states would be based on the relative share of rural BPL population in the total states. The investment in one of the world’s largest poverty reduction initiatives would help in setting up of an institutional platform by mobilizing rural poor, particularly women, into robust grassroots institutions of their own where, with the strength of the group behind them, they will be able to exert voice and accountability over providers of educational, health, nutritional and financial services.

NRLP will assist in professionalization of the overall program management of NRLM  by shifting the focus of expenditure-based allocation, to provide quality technical assistance and results-based financing.  It will also make investments in developing a wider base of implementing partnerships with private sector, civil society, and other development institutions for bringing in new ideas, innovations, services, and delivery mechanisms. NRLP   will invest intensively in support implementation of NRLM in 100 districts and 400 blocks of 12 high poverty states (Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu), accounting for 85 percent of the rural poor in the country. The aim is to create best practice sites and to develop them as local immersion locations and generate critical pool of social capital for catalyzing social mobilization of the poor and building quality institutions of the poor. The sequence will include the following:

a)      social inclusion through participatory identification of the poor and universal social mobilization;

b)      building institutional platforms of the poor in the form of SHG federations, producer collectives, etc.;

c)      developing social capital in the form of trained community leaders, community resources persons and para-professionals providing livelihood services to the poor;

d)     micro-planning and investments for livelihoods enhancement; (v) access to credit from formal financial institutions available in desired amounts and convenient repayment terms;

e)      convergence with other entitlements and programs such as MGNREGS, pensions, etc.; and

f)       building sustainable livelihoods options for the poor by developing activity/trade clusters supporting farm and non-farm enterprises focused on productivity improvement and market access.

Government has restructured one of its key rural development programs, the SGSY, through the establishment of the National Rural Livelihoods Mission (NRLM) with a clear objective of rural poverty reduction through creation and strengthening institutional platforms of the rural poor. It is being implemented in 28 states and 7 union territories in India. NRLM is one of the world's largest poverty reduction initiatives aimed at reaching out to 350 million people, almost a quarter of India's population. Based on the past experience in several states, NLRP is expected to have a transformational social impact, supporting India's efforts to achieve the millennium development goals (MDG) on nutrition, gender and poverty.