End of poverty - National Rural
Livelihoods Mission (N.R.L.M)
T. Vijay Kumar
JS, Ministry of Rural Development
Govt of India
vjthallam@gmail.com
NRLM :
GOAL - POVERTY ELIMINATION
Poverty elimination through social
mobilization, institution building,
financial inclusion and a portfolio of
sustainable livelihoods.
VISION:
Each poor family should have an
annual income of at least Rs.50,000
per annum
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NRLM

Task: to reach out to 7.0 crore rural
poor households, and, stay engaged
with them till they come out of abject
poverty

Mission - to do this in a time bound
manner
N.R.L.M - LESSONS FROM LARGE SCALE
EXPERIENCE IN THE COUNTRY
Even an ultra-poor family can come out of
abject poverty in 6 - 8 years
 Provided they are organised, nurtured, and,
given continuous support by a dedicated
support structure, both external and their
own.
 Provided they are enabled to access financial
support in repeat doses, min. Rs.1.0 lakh per
family
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GUIDING PRINCIPLES
Organising the poor – a prerequisite to poverty
eradication – a woman from each family
 Inclusion of the poorest
 Institutions of poor, greatest source of strength
for the poor, S.H.Gs, federations, livelihoods
collectives
 Dedicated, professional, sensitive support
structure

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GUIDING PRINCIPLES OF N.R.L.M
Poor to drive all project initiatives – key role of
social capital: S.H.G and federation leaders,
community professionals
 Scaling through community best practitioners
 Transparency and accountability
 Community self reliance and self dependence

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BUILDING PRO-POOR FINANCIAL SECTOR
Access to credit key to coming out of poverty.
Out of Rs.100,000 per family required – around
90% has to come from financial institutions.
Financial inclusion at affordable cost holds the
key
LIVELIHOODS PROMOTION
Four streams of livelihoods :




coping with vulnerabilities – debt bondage,
food insecurity, migration, health shocks
existing livelihoods – stabilising, expanding
them, and, making them sustainable
self employment - micro-enterprise
development
skilled wage employment - opportunities in
growing sectors of the economy
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VULNERABILITY REDUCTION
VULNERABILITY REDUCTION – the following
issues will be tackled



Indebtedness – through debt swapping
Food insecurity – food security credit, grain
banks
Health shocks – health risk fund
STRENGTHENING EXISTING LIVELIHOODS

Critical livelihoods are: agriculture, livestock, forestry
and non-timber forest produce

Promote institutions around livelihoods

Promote end-to-end solutions, covering the entire
value chain

Key – knowledge dissemination. Development of
community professionals in a large number
SKILL DEVELOPMENT AND PLACEMENT




Up-scaling of Skill development through
public-private partnerships – critical
Target: 1 crore youth in 7 years
Separate models for tribal areas, minority
concentrated districts – education ( 9
months to 12 months residential ) + skills +
placement
Community professionals –programmes for
skilling local youth in agriculture, livestock,
watersheds, N.T.F.P, etc.
SELF EMPLOYMENT AND MICRO ENTERPRISE
DEVELOPMENT

Entrepreneurship development among local youth
to generate in situ employment

Successful RUDSETI model will be replicated

Necessary changes in the model will be made –
partnerships not only with banks but also private
sector, N.G.Os , etc.
KEY FEATURES OF N.R.L.M: CONVERGENCE
AND PARTNERSHIPS
Convergence – institutions of poor provide a
platform for convergence and optimisation of all
anti-poverty programmes
 Linkages with PRIs
 Partnerships with N.G.Os and CSOs
 Partnerships with industries, industry
associations

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KEY FEATURES OF N.R.L.M: SENSITIVE
SUPPORT
Dedicated sensitive support structures at all
levels to trigger social mobilisation.
 A national mission management unit
 State wide sensitive support structure, full
time dedicated head of the mission
 Positioning multi-disciplinary team of trained
and competent professionals at state, district
and sub-district level
 Quality human resources from open market
and from Govt.
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VISION : END OF POVERTY