Some Important Programmes in Livelihoods: Searching for Focus?
41
been scaled down considerably, possibly on
account of other programmes aimed at skill
development. Against the reduced target
too, achievements have lagged far behind,
especially in placement of trainees. Capacity
building of women farmers’ under MKSP is
one of the livelihood supporting initiatives
under NRLM. The number of women farm-
ers covered cumulatively has exceeded the
target. A review of the achievement reveals
that the southern states have been at the
forefront of the SHG movement, account-
ing for 82 per cent of all credit facilitated in
the country.
Amid-termassessment carried out found
that 60 per cent of the households mobilised
belong to the disadvantaged section of the
population i.e., SC and ST. Across states,
between 75 per cent to 90 per cent of the
SHGs were
Panchsutra
compliant (Box 3.3).
The average savings per member
amounted to
`
1,260 by December 2014.
Sixty four per cent of all groups had been
provided with the revolving fund assistance.
Forty two SHGs out of 2.75 lakh SHGs that
were in existence by December 2014 had
been provided with community investment
funds (CIFs). One of the primary objectives
of NRLM is to facilitate bank credit linkage
for the groups. Of all groups that had been
in existence for six months, 35 per cent were
able to access bank credit. However, themid-
term assessment also found that more than
50 per cent of the sample SHGs selected for
a survey had idle funds of
`
10,000 or more.
The latest impact assessment of the
World Bank (April 2015)
8
has rated the pro-
ject development objectives and implemen-
tation progress as moderately satisfactory
while rating the overall risk as substantial,
thus raising it from ‘moderate’ risk rating in
the previous report. The higher perceived
risk arises from the shift in emphasis in
implementation of the programme. The
World Bank which had sanctioned a loan of
$1 billion cancelled half the loan and scaled
it down to $500 million on account of slow
progress, thus resulting in slow disburse-
ments. The World Bank in its review came
to the conclusion that most of the states
had reached the critical stage from which
they were poised to go to the next level and
deal with livelihoods of the poor, taking up
social development activities. The lead time
taken from the launch of NRLM to the take
off stage is four years, with which the admit-
tedly lengthy process of social mobilisation
is too long.
The state-wise position of expenditure on
NRLM is provided in Table 3.8. Of the 27
states, only seven managed to spend a satis-
factory level of 75 per cent of the funds made
available. Thirteen states could not spend
even 50 per cent of the available funds. There
were a number of mainstream states which
were unable to gather the required momen-
tum in the implementation progress.
Box 3.3:
Quality dimensions of SHGs
Panchsutra: The five principles for a good
SHG
Regular Savings
Regular Meetings
Regular accounts’ book-keeping and
accounting
Regular repayments
Adherence to rules and regulations of the
SHG
Source:
Excerpted from NRLM Brochure,
MoRD, GoI.
Table 3.8:
Low level of spending by states (
`
crore)
State
Total available fund
Expenditure (2014–15)
Per cent of
expenditure (%)
Andhra Pradesh
38.63
20.56
53.23
Gujarat
43.28
10.46
24.17
Haryana
19.33
17.33
89.65
Jammu & Kashmir
63.28
45.61
72.08
Jharkhand
128.61
31.7
24.65
Karnataka
36.42
18.51
50.82
Madhya Pradesh
62.53
32.2
51.5
Punjab
14.15
6.77
47.84
8
Quoted from Implementation Status and Results
Report, the World Bank, April 2015. Sourced from
.
(Continued)
