Nagaland Rural Livelihoods Mission (NSRLM) is a registered Society under Society Registration Act, 1860 and Nagaland Societies Registration (Nagaland Third Amendment) Act, 2008 (Act No.1 of 2009), established by the Rural Development Department, Government of Nagaland on 13th September 2012, for implementation of ‘Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Rural Livelihood Mission (DAY-NRLM)’ in the State.
DAY-NRLM is a poverty alleviation programme implemented by the Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India. The programme aims to organize the poor into ‘Institutions of the Poor (Self Help Groups and their Federations) and make them capable of self-employment. In 1999 after restructuring Integrated Rural Development Programme(IRDP), Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD) launched the flagship programme Swarnjayanti Gram SwarozgarYojana (SGSY), which aimed at providing sustainable income to rural BPL households through income-generating assets/economic activities in order to bring them out of poverty. Evaluation of SGSY by National Institute of Rural Development (NIRD), Bankers Institute of Rural Development (BIRD) and several other institutions showed mix results. The one-off assetization programme focusing on single livelihood activity did not meet multiple livelihood requirements of the poor. It also indicated a lack of proper delivery systems and dedicated efforts for skill training and building capacity for resource absorption among the rural poor. And Absence of collective institutions in the form of SHG federations precluded the poor from accessing higher-order support services for productivity enhancement, marketing linkages or risk management
It is in this context that the Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD), Government of India (GoI) restructured SGSY and formally launched DAY-NRLM on 3rd June 2011 and is one of the flagship programmes of Ministry of Rural Development. This is one of the world’s largest initiative to improve the livelihood of the poor. Through the adoption of ‘Livelihoods Approach’ to rural poverty elimination, the approach encompasses the following four inter-related tasks:
- Mobilizing poor households into functionally effective SHGs and their Federations
- Enhancing access to bank credit and financial, technical and marketing services
- Building capacities and skills for gainful and sustainable livelihoods development
- Converging various schemes for efficient delivery of social and economic support services to poor households
Accordingly, Nagaland Rural Livelihoods Mission aims to foster social and economic empowerment of the rural poor through sustainable women Self Help Groups and their Federations and empower local change-makers.
Poor Households in Nagaland have innate capacity to reduce their own poverty through access to skilled wage employment and self-employment and building sustainable grassroots institutions of poor.
“To reduce poverty by enabling the poor households to access gainful self-employment and skilled wage employment opportunities, resulting in an appreciable improvement in their livelihoods on a sustainable basis, through building strong grassroots institutions of the poor.”
A progressive and empowered community, collectively contributing to social change and ensuring equity through holistic development.
Guiding Principles
- Poor have a strong desire to come out of poverty, and they have innate capabilities
- Social mobilization and building strong institutions of the poor is critical for unleashing the innate capabilities of the poor.
- An external dedicated and sensitive support structure is required to induce the social mobilization, institution building and empowerment process.
- Facilitating knowledge dissemination, skill building, access to credit, access to marketing, and access to other livelihoods services underpins this upward mobility.
Values
The core values which guide all the activities under DAY-NRLM are as follows:
- Inclusion of the poorest, and meaningful role to the poorest in all the processes.
- Transparency and accountability of all processes and institutions.
- Ownership and the key role of the poor and their institutions in all stages – planning, implementation, and, monitoring.
- Community self-reliance and self-dependence.