42
S
tate
of
I
ndia
’
s
L
ivelihoods
R
eport
2015
The performance of NRLM in its liveli-
hood activities seems to be wanting. Most
of the initiatives taken under NRLM relate
to forming of groups and linking them with
banks. There have not beenmany livelihood-
related initiatives as part of NRLM. The
mid-term assessment of NRLP carried out
by the National Mission Management Unit
(NMMU) in March 2015 has made no ref-
erence to livelihood initiatives in the entire
report. In the Outcome Budget of 2015–16,
the MoRD points to capacity building of
women farmers and also to enterprise devel-
opment initiatives of rural self-employment
training institutes as part of livelihood
intervention of NRLM. The NRLM design
is based on the AP Model of SHG-based
interventions and has created people-based
multi-tier institutional structures that can
handle financial services efficiently and can
effectively channel different other services.
However, this efficient delivery channel has
been used more for channelling subsidies
and bank credit rather than organising and
transforming people’s livelihoods except
in a limited way in AP. A number of ini-
tiatives carried out by the Mission in the
livelihoods space relate to capacity build-
ing of women farmers, infrastructure and
marketing support, skill development for
self-employment and wage employment,
rural self-employment training through
rural self-employment training institutes
(RSETIs) and also organising marketing
fairs. A reading of the available reports
shows that livelihood-related initiatives are
very limited compared to financial-inclusion
initiatives. The clarity visible in financial
architecture, seed funding and facilitation of
loans is not seen in case of livelihoods initia-
tives.
Economic Survey
of 2013–14 observed:
The SGSY/NRLM has been working satisfac-
torily in activities like tailoring, home-made
products like
agarbattis
, locally consum-
able items, pottery and hospitality services.
However, careful assessment of demand
and supply of the end-product through
meticulous planning and putting in place the
backward and forward linkages is necessary.
For this, proper time-bound identification
and development of growth centres at block
levels is needed. The mismatch in the scope
of activities and large amount of investments
made in infrastructures like buildings and
equipments need to be looked into.
While some states were able to mobilise
groups at a faster pace, a number of states
were not able to complete the mobilisation
phase (Figure 3.7). In a number of states
such as Punjab, Haryana, Uttarakhand and
Himachal Pradesh, the progress was very low.
The Mission is yet to prove its national
character by expanding to all parts of the
country and by making financial archi-
tecture work for the benefit of the rural
households. A critical aspect of the NRLM is
that it is skewed more towards the southern
states, especially the state of AP. In terms of
budget allocation and expenditure, AP has
had a lion’s share since the last four years out
of the total NRLM expenditure. Especially
under the credit and interest subvention for
State
Total available fund
Expenditure (2014–15)
Per cent of
expenditure (%)
Tamil Nadu
186.48
161.34
86.52
Uttar Pradesh
208.48
38.59
18.51
Assam
136.06
29.53
21.7
Manipur
2.07
2.07
100
Mizoram
2.8
2.8
100
Tripura
8.64
4.15
48
Bihar
692.5
383.27
55.35
Chhattisgarh
57.9
13.42
18.07
Himachal Pradesh
8.05
4.25
52.84
Kerala
25.2
25.17
99.87
Maharashtra
126.46
96.84
76.57
Odisha
165.41
45.28
27.38
Rajasthan
35.31
5.54
15.7
Uttarakhand
15.71
3.23
20.53
West Bengal
41.33
39.9
96.55
Arunachal Pradesh
3.35
0
0
Meghalaya
10.72
2.15
20.08
Nagaland
9.23
9.23
100
Sikkim
1.08
0
0
Source:
Based on NRLM MIS, MoRD website.
(Continued)
