Cabinet approves  Special Package for UT of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh under the Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana – National Rural Livelihoods Mission

The Union Cabinet, chaired by the Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi has approved a Special Package worth Rs. 520 crore in the UTs of J&K and Ladakh for a period of five years till FY 2023-24 and ensure funding of DeendayalAntyodaya Yojana – National Rural Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NRLM) in the UTs of Jammu and Kashmir & Ladakh on a demand driven basis without linking allocation with poverty ratio during this extended period. This will ensure sufficient funds under the Mission, as per need to the UTs and is also in line with Government of India’s aim to universalize all centrally sponsored beneficiary-oriented schemes in the UTs of J&K and Ladakh in a time bound manner. This is based on the 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. DeendayalAntyodaya 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. 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. Background: DAY-NRLM has been implemented in the erstwhile state of J&K by the Jammu and Kashmir 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 1% 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 state, Gol had approved a Special Package under DAY-NRLM for the State of Jammu & Kashmir to cover all the rural vulnerable households in the State (estimated at two-thirds of the total number of rural households) within a definite time frame of five years from FY 2013-14 to FY 2017-18. The Cabinet also approved allocation of funds to the 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 crores (Central share 679.78 crores) for the five-year period. Due to various reasons and the disturbed conditions in the State, the Special Package as approved in May 2013, and subsequently extended by a year to up to 2018-19, could not 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.