Why in news?

• Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana- National Rural Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NRLM) seeks to reach out to 8-9 crore rural poor households and organize one woman member from each household into affinity-based women SHGs and federations at village level and at higher levels.

Progress:

• During 2018-19: 588 additional blocks have been covered under “Intensive” implementation strategy of DAY-NRLM bringing the cumulative total to 5054 blocks.
• During the year 2018-19so far, over 73 lakh households have been mobilized into 6.75 lakh SHGs. The SHG-Bank Linkage programme has seen tremendous growth year on year under DAY-NRLM. During this financial year, about 17.57 lakh SHGs have accessed credit of Rs. 27911 crore up to October, 2018.

Non-Farm Livelihoods:

• Aajeevika Grameen Express Yojana (AGEY) is a programme to provide safe, affordable and community monitored transport services to rural areas. The vehicles are owned and operated by members of Self-Help Group (SHG) networks and operate in regions which are not served by regular transport services. 624 routes are currently served by AGEY across the country.
• Start-up Village Entrepreneurship Programme (SVEP), the sub-scheme under DAY-NRLM develops an eco-system for supporting small businesses in rural areas. The eco-system has components for providing business support services, mentorship, seed capital, training & capacity building on business and technical aspects and marketing support.

Farm Livelihoods:

• This year, DAY-NRLM has taken up promotion of organic farming with women SHG members across the country. Under organic farming initiative, a total of 1646 number of organic village clusters have been identified by 28 States/UTs.
• Ensuring Food & Nutritional Security is one of the stated objectives of all farm livelihoods interventions and in order to make sure that this objective is met, agri-nutri gardens at Mahila Kisan household level are being promoted.
• As linking small and marginal producers with the market is a critical gap, value chain development through the promotion of producer collectives is a critical component of the implementation strategy under Farm Livelihoods. In the year 2018-19, three Mahila Milk Producer Companies (MMPCs) have been operationalized in Madhya Pradesh and Bihar.