National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM) Scheme, India

NRLM is the rechristened version of Swarna Jayanti Swarojgar Yojna (SGSY). It is a programme of Ministry of Rural Development. It aims to reduce poverty by enabling the poor household to access gainful self employment and skilled wage employment opportunity resulting in a sustainable livelihood.

NRLM is based on three pillars:

i. Enhancing and expanding the existing livelihood options of the poor

ii. Building skills for the job market

iii. Nurturing self employed and entrepreneurs

NRLM plans to give special focus on the poorest households who are currently dependent on the MGNREGA. The design of NRLM is more likely to succeed because its implementation is in a mission mode which enables it shift from the present allocation based approach to demand based approach. This enables the states to formulate their own livelihood based on poverty reduction action plans.

It also focuses on targets, outcomes, and time bound strategies. The monitoring would be done against the targets of the poverty outcomes. NRLM will have continuous capacity building, imparting of requisite skills and creating linkages with livelihood opportunities for the poor, including those emerging from the organised sectors.

NRLM funds will be directly released to the state level agencies and DRDA based on the detailed district wise annual action plan. It will involve the Self Help Group in the implementation which increases the likelihood of its success. National Skill Development Council will also coordinate in the skill development part in the implementation of NRLM.

In order to ensure institutional arrangement for skill development for self employment and wage employment, dedicated training institute for rural BPL youth i.e. Rural Self Employment Training Institutes (RSETIs) are being set up with the aim of having at least one such institution in each district in India. These RSETIs will be set up with the partnership of banks. This will help in achieving the objectives of NRLM.