Boost to rural poverty alleviation programme
Funds will help people of 2 UTs: PM
Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, Oct 14: The Union Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi today approved a special package of Rs 520 crore for the Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh under the National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM) which will ensure sufficient funds for the two UTs under the Mission.
The special package for Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh was cleared by the Union Cabinet and announced by Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting Prakash Javadekar at a press conference in New Delhi.
“The package will ensure sufficient funds under the Mission to UTs of J&K and Ladakh. The package is in line with Centre’s aim to universalize all Central Sponsored Beneficiary Oriented Schemes in the two UTs in a time bound manner,” Javadekar said.
The NRLM aims to enable rural poor to increase household income through sustainable livelihood enhancements and improved access to financial services.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the package will further help the people of J&K and Ladakh.
“Today’s Cabinet decision will further “Ease of Living” for the people of Jammu and Kashmir as well as Ladakh”, Modi tweeted.
Soon after announcement of the package, Union Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) Dr Jitendra Singh extended gratitude to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“Thanks Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The Union Cabinet meeting held today has approved special package worth Rs 520 crore for the UTs of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh under the Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Rural Livelihoods Mission. A timely and substantial stimulus for the two UTs,” Dr Jitendra Singh tweeted.
“Reiteration of PM Narendra Modi’s consistent concern and high prioritisation for J&K and Ladakh. Never before have there been so many support packages and such quantum of Central aid as has been since 2014,” Dr Jitendra Singh further said.
An official statement issued by the Government of India said the package will be for a period of five years till the financial year 2023-24 and ensure funding of NRLM in the UTs of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh on a demand driven basis without linking allocation with poverty ratio during the extended period.
The package, as per the statement, is based on outcomes of the evaluation pointing to potential of the Mission to improve the quality of life of rural households and women’s empowerment and given the changed circumstances in the UTs of J&K and Ladakh.
For technical reasons, official sources said, very few women were identified and were eligible in Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh for the programme. So the criterion has been changed for the two UTs.
Around two-third rural women will be covered and 10.58 lakh women will get the benefit from the special package of Rs 520 crore for the next five years, they said.
There are around 63 lakh self-help groups in the country and 7 crore women are members of these groups and they have been granted Rs 3 lakh crore loan, of which only 2.3 per cent are NPAs. The Modi government aims to reach out to 10 crore women in the country through this scheme, of which over 10 lakh will be from J&K and Ladakh, they added.
Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Rural Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NRLM) is a Centrally sponsored programme that aims at eliminating rural poverty through promotion of multiple livelihoods for the rural poor households across the country. The launch of DAY-NRLM in June 2011 to address rural poverty marks a paradigm shift in poverty alleviation programmes, the statement said, adding the DAY-NRLM seeks to reach out to all rural poor households, estimated at about 10 crore households, and impact their livelihoods through universal social mobilization by inter alia organizing one-woman member from each rural poor household into Self Help Groups (SHGs), their training and capacity building, facilitating their micro-livelihoods plans, and enabling them to implement their livelihoods plans through accessing financial resources from their own institutions and the banks.
“The Mission involves working with the community institutions through community professionals in the spirit of self-help. This is the unique proposition of DAY-NRLM and that is how it is different from the previous poverty eradication programmes. The other distinguishing features of the programme is that it is implemented in a Mission mode by special purpose vehicles (autonomous state societies) with dedicated implementation support units at the national, state, district and block levels, using professional human resources in order to provide continuous and long-term handholding support to each rural poor family,” it added.
DAY-NRLM has been implemented in the erstwhile State of Jammu and Kashmir by the J&K State Rural Livelihoods Mission (JKSRLM) as `Umeed’ Programme. As per the current funds allocation procedure under DAY-NRLM based on inter-se poverty allocations among States, the share of J&K was less than one percent of the annual allocation under DAY-NRLM. In order to ensure sufficient funding support under the Mission for J&K and to ensure adequate coverage of the rural vulnerable population in the erstwhile State, the Government of India had approved a special package under DAY-NRLM for J&K to cover all rural vulnerable households estimated at two-thirds of total number of rural households within a definite time frame of five years from the financial year 2013-14 to 2017-18, the Government statement said.
It added that the Cabinet had also approved allocation of funds to the erstwhile State under DAY-NRLM on a need basis for implementation of the special package without linking it with poverty ratio. Originally approved financial outlay for the proposal was of the order of Rs 755.32 crore including Central share of Rs 679.78 crore for the five-year period.
The statement pointed out that due to variety of reasons and disturbed conditions in Jammu and Kashmir, the special package as approved in May 2013, and subsequently extended by a year up to 2018-19, couldn’t be fully implemented.
“A detailed third-party evaluation of the achievements of the programme in J&K and assessment of the preparedness of the State Mission to implement the special package further was conducted by Institute of Rural Management (IRMA), Anand, Gujarat in 2019. The evaluation has brought out many good outcomes of implementation of the DAY-NRLM in the erstwhile state. These included increase in income levels, improved assets base, creating new/multiple livelihoods opportunities for women, higher savings, higher investments for productive purposes, productive utilization of loans etc. In addition, it has had a positive impact on resolving community level issues, increased transparency in beneficiary selection, social harmony and mutual help. A large cadre of community resource persons and social capital in the form of SHGs members and officer bearers has also been created,” the statement revealed.
Meanwhile, Lieutenant Governor, Manoj Sinha has thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for special package for Union Territories of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh under the Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana – National Rural Livelihoods Mission.
Expressing gratitude for the package, Sinha remarked: “I am grateful to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for a special package of Rs. 520 crore for J&K and Ladakh. This will improve the quality of life of rural households and lead to women’s empowerment to achieve the goals of Antyodaya in Jammu and Kashmir.”
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