DAY-NRLM Special Package for J&K and Ladakh | 15 Oct 2020

Why in News

Recently, the Union Cabinet has approved a special package worth Rs. 520 crore in the Union Territories (UTs) of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) and Ladakh for a period of five years under the Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Rural Livelihood Mission (DAY-NRLM).

Key Points

  • The decision is in line with Centre’s aim to universalise all centrally sponsored beneficiary-oriented schemes in J&K and Ladakh in a time-bound manner.
  • The package has been approved for a period of five years till the financial year 2023-24 and it has been decided to ensure funding on a demand-driven basis without linking allocation with poverty ratio during the extended period.
    • Around two-third rural women from the UTs will be covered and 10.58 lakh women will get the benefit from the special package.
  • The step was based on the outcomes of an evaluation pointing to the potential of the Mission to improve the quality of life of rural households and women empowerment under the changed circumstances in the UTs of J&K and Ladakh.

Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Rural Livelihood Mission

  • It is a centrally sponsored programme, launched by the Ministry of Rural Development in June 2011.
  • Aim:
    • To eliminate rural poverty through the promotion of multiple livelihoods and improved access to financial services for the rural poor households across the country.
    • To reach out to all rural poor households and impact their livelihoods.
  • Functioning:
    • It involves working with community institutions through community professionals in the spirit of self-help which is a unique proposition of DAY-NRLM.
    • It impacts the livelihoods through universal social mobilization by inter alia organising 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.
  • Implementation:
    • 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.
  • Support Provided:
    • There were 63 lakh SHGs comprising seven crore women members in the country which had been granted Rs. 3 lakh crore in loans and the non-performing assets (NPA) amounted to only 2.3%.
    • The outstanding loans were to the tune of Rs. 1 lakh crore.
    • The government plans to take the scheme to 10 crore women.

Source: PIB