North East Rural Livelihood Project | 30 Aug 2019

The North East Rural Livelihood Project (NERLP) has empowered the poor and improved the lives of people in about 3,00,000 rural households in Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura and Sikkim.

About North East Rural Livelihood Project

  • Launched in 2012, the NERLP is a World Bank aided, multi-state ₹683 crore project under the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER).
  • The project has been implemented in 11 districts of Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura and Sikkim with an aim to improve rural livelihoods especially that of women, unemployed youth and the most disadvantaged, in the four North Eastern States.
  • There are four components to the Project:
    • Social empowerment
    • Economic empowerment
    • Partnership development
    • Project management
  • The specific project objectives are to :
    • Create sustainable community institutions around women Self-Help Groups (SHGs), Youth Groups of men and women (YG) and Community Development Groups (CDG).
    • Build capacity of community institutions for self governance, bottom up planning, democratic functioning with transparency and accountability.
    • Increase economic and livelihood opportunities.
    • Develop partnership of community institutions for natural resource management, microfinance, market linkages, and sectoral economic services.
  • The project also works in partnerships with expert organizations to focus on cluster development through value chain.

Outcomes

  • It has impacted the lives of about 18 lakh population, with creation of common economic assets (including rural infrastructure) worth around total Rs. 136 crores.
  • Under the project, 10,462 boys and girls have been trained in various job skills and 5,494 of them are employed as of now.
  • Various activities have been undertaken by CDGs such as reclamation of wasteland, construction of check-dams, plantation, horticulture projects etc.
  • Livelihood activities pursued by SHG members have increased considerably, thus increasing family incomes.
  • Women have become more knowledgeable and expressive and display better leadership qualities.

Source: PIB