Enhancing household economy & transforming Lives
Poor have multiple livelihoods as a coping mechanism for survival. The net incomes and employment days from the current livelihoods are not adequate to meet their expenditures. NSRLM main focus is to stabilize and enhance existing livelihoods portfolio of the poor, in farm and in non-farm sectors, and subsequently diversifying their livelihoods. It looks at the entire portfolio of livelihoods of each household and facilitate support for the activities at the individual/household level, or in a collective, or at both levels, through DAY-NRLM’s three pillars:
- ‘vulnerability reduction’ and ’livelihoods enhancement’ through deepening/enhancing and expanding existing livelihoods options and tapping new opportunities in farm and non-farm sectors;
- ‘employment’- building skills for the job market outside; and
- ‘enterprises’ – nurturing self-employed and entrepreneurs (for micro-enterprises).
Vulnerability Reduction & Livelihoods Enhancement
NSRLM encourages the delivery of services/entitlements (such as MGNREGS, PDS) through the SHGs and their federations. The institutions of the poor set aside funds towards vulnerability reduction – food security, health security, etc. Vulnerability Reduction Fund is also used for meeting the emergency needs of the poor and meeting the needs of the ultra-poor and vulnerable households on a differential footing.NSRLM promotes and supports Collectives towards Sustainable Livelihoods of the Poor (CSLP) around key livelihoods of the poor. These collectives offer their members access to livelihoods knowledge, skills, technology, market intelligence, risk management products and credit support through their SHGs and Federations to individual members/households.
NSRLM, through Mahila Kisan Sashaktikaran Pariyojana (MKSP), is promoting and facilitating scaling-up successful, small-scale projects that enhance women’s participation and productivity in agriculture and allied activities.
Mahila Kisan Sashaktikaran Pariyojana (MKSP), launched in 2010-11, is a special programme for livelihood enhancement under DAY-NRLM. It is a concerted effort to recognize the role of women in agriculture, to enhance their capacities and increase their income in agriculture and allied activities. MKSP aims to ensure household food and nutrition security of the poor and the poorest of poor.
Its primary focus is on promoting and facilitating the scale-up of successful small-scale projects with the help of NGOs, CBOs and other government agencies across the country. It is envisaged that these projects would emerge as resource centres.
Its key elements include:
- Focus on inclusion of the poorest of poor
- Community Managed Environmentally Sustainable Agriculture practices.
- Support to various strategies and ways of reducing drudgery of MahilaKisans.
- Supporting institutions around agriculture and allied activities to strengthen livelihoods of the poor.
- Developing a wide pool of community practitioners (CRPs) to ensure participatory service delivery and country wide scale up of best practises.
Thematic Interventions:
Sustainable Agriculture
MKSP promotes sustainable agriculture where the inputs are localized, risks are mitigated, productivity is enhanced, food security is ensured and hence the net income of family is increased. The important objectives of MKSP-Agriculture are as follows:
- Create sustainable agricultural livelihood opportunities for women in agriculture;
- Ensure food and nutrition security at the household and the community level;
- Improve the skills and capabilities of women in agriculture to support farm-based activities; and
- Enhance the managerial capacities of women in agriculture for better management of bio-diversity.
Non-Timber Forest Produce (NTFP)
MKSP promotes sustainable practices across the entire value chain of NTFP – regeneration, collection, processing & marketing. The important objectives of MKSP-NTFP are as follows:
- Ensure greater control of the institutions of poor on NTFP value chain;
- Promote regeneration of NTFP species to improve the bio diversity and enhance productivity;
- Build capacity of the community in modern harvesting and post harvesting techniques to increase their income; and
- Promote value addition and set up market linkages for NTFP to ensure higher returns.
Employment- Skill Development and Placement
Creating one job per poor household, in formal sectors, brings the whole family out of poverty in a short period of time. It brings in stable and higher levels of income. DAY-NRLM is bridging the skill gap and entry level barriers for the rural BPL youth and facilitate their entry into relatively high wage employment in the growing sectors of economy, through Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana (DDU-GKY). This programme offers complete jobs solution- identifying the unemployed, skilling and re-skilling them, placing them in jobs, providing post placement support, counselling and mentorship, and leveraging an alumni network. It is demand driven and placement-linked.
Self-employment
One of the pillars of the Livelihoods promotion strategy of DAY-NRLM is nurturing self-employment and entrepreneurship. In this regard, NRLM is encouraging public sector banks to set up Rural Self Employment Training Institutes (RSETIs) in all districts of the country on the linesof Rural Development Self Employment Institute (RUDSETI) model. The model envisages transforming unemployed youth into confident self- employed entrepreneurs through a short duration experiential learning programme followed by systematic long duration hand holding support. The need-based training buildsentrepreneurship qualities, improves self-confidence, reduces risk of failure and develops the trainees into change agents. Banks are fully involved in selection, training and post training follow up stages. The needs of the poor articulated through the institutions of the poor would guide RSETIs in preparing the participants/trainees in their pursuits of self- employment and enterprises.