The Ministry is implementing Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana – National Rural Livelihoods Mission (DAY – NRLM) across the country (except Delhi & Chandigarh) with the objective of organizing the rural poor women into Self Help Groups (SHGs) and continuously nurturing and supporting them till they attain appreciable increase in incomes over a period of time and improve their quality of life and come out of abject poverty.
The Mission has mobilized 9.89 crore women from rural households into 89.82 lakh SHGs as on 30th November, 2023.
Under DAY-NRLM, SHGs and their federations are empowered by providing them funding support in the form of Revolving Fund (RF) and Community Investment Fund (CIF). Cumulatively Rs. 7,36,724.17 lakh of RF and Rs. 30,47,553.32 lakh of CIF has been provided to SHGs and their federations. In addition, the SHGs are also facilitated for Bank linkage for accessing credit at subsidized rates of interest.
Cumulatively 7.68 Lakh crore of Bank loan has been disbursed since 2013-14. SHG member are taking loan from these funds for taking up various income generating activities. The Mission also helps SHG households for taking up livelihoods activities in rural area through various interventions through sub-schemes like Start-up Village Entrepreneurship Programme (SVEP), Aajeevika Grameen Express Yojana (AGEY), Mahila Kisan Sashaktikaran Pariyojana (MKSP), Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana (DDUGKY) & Rural Self Employment Training Institutes (RSETI).
DAY NRLM has played a significant role in transforming the lives of rural poor, especially women. In a third-party evaluation conducted by International Initiative for Impact Assessment (3ie) in 2019, it was found that DAY NRLM has contributed to increase in savings, reduction in share of informal loans, improved labour force participation of women, significant improvement in access to other social sector schemes and a significant improvement in households’ income sources.
