Policy Update
Suranjana Mitra
The Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana – National Urban Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NULM) is known for its multifaceted approach to address the different needs of the urban poor and their upliftment. The NULM believes that economic development and urbanisation are closely linked to each other. Data points towards the contribution of urban cities to be more than 60 per cent to India’s GDP (Gross Domestic Product). The Report on Conditions of Work and Promotion of Livelihoods in the Unorganized Sector by the National Commission on Enterprises in the Unorganized Sector, brought out in August 2007 (NCEUS, 2007) reveals that in 2004-05, out of India’s total workforce, 92 percent were a part of the informal economy. A large part of unorganized non-agricultural workers form a part of the urban informal sector as they often migrate to urban areas in search of work or due to insufficient funds or land for agriculture.
Background
The DAY-NULM has replaced the existing Swarna Jayanti Shahari Rozgar Yojana (SJSRY). The NULM scheme was launched by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation, Government of India on September 24th, 2013. It was renamed as DAY-NULM in 2016. The aim of NULM is to provide market-based employment and help them set up self-employment ventures by ensuring easy access to credit. NULM believes that the poor are entrepreneurial and have an innate desire to escape poverty.
The Mission is to be implemented in all District Headquarter Towns and all other cities having a population of 1,00,000 or more as per 2011 census. It aims to bring above those who are below the poverty line and ensure them access to better opportunities in order to achieve a life of dignity.
Functioning
Most of the informal workers migrate from rural areas in search of work and settle in makeshift shelters on the streets or in slums to avoid travelling long distances daily. This population faces a lack of access to sanitary living conditions and their well-being is hampered by discrimination, social exclusion, crime, violence, insecurity of tenure, hazardous environmental conditions and lack of voice in governance.
The dimensions of urban poverty can be broadly divided into three categories: (i) residential vulnerability (access to land, shelter, basic services, etc.); (ii) social vulnerability (deprivations related to factors like gender, age and social stratification, lack of social protection, inadequate voice and participation in governance structures, etc.) and (iii) occupational vulnerability (precarious livelihoods, dependence on informal sector for employment and earnings, lack of job security, poor working conditions, etc.). These vulnerabilities are interrelated. Amongst the urban poor, there are some sections who are subject to greater vulnerability in terms of the above classification; these include women, children, and the aged, SCs, STs, minorities and persons with disabilities who deserve attention on a priority basis.
The National Urban Housing and Habitat Policy (NUHHP), 2007 aims to ensure an equitable supply of land, shelter and services at affordable prices to all sections of the society. The poor are entitled to dignified shelters under Article 21, Right to Life, of the Constitution of India. Hence, vulnerabilities relating to residential issues are being addressed through programmes like Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban).
In this context, a mission-mode approach like the Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Urban Livelihoods Mission is required to address these issues and improve the situation.
The Mission looks to motivate the urban poor to form their own institutions which will be provided with sufficient capacity so that they can manage the external environment, expand their skills and access finance. DAY-NULM believes that strong institutional platforms support the poor in building up their own human, social, financial, and other assets. This enables them to get access to entitlements, opportunities and services from the public and private sectors at the same time enhancing their solidarity, voice and bargaining power. In this Mission, the Urban local Bodies have to play the lead role in improving the conditions as according to the Constitution (74th Amendment) Act, 1992, urban poverty alleviation is a legitimate function of the Urban Local Bodies (ULB).
Urban street vendors constitute an important segment of the urban poor who have created self-employment opportunities which acts as a measure of urban poverty alleviated without major Government intervention. NULM aims to provide these urban street vendors with suitable spaces, institutional credit, social security and skills so that they can access emerging market opportunities. Funding is shared between the Centre and the States in the ratio of 75:25 and for North Eastern and Special Category States, this ratio will be 90:10.
The mission focuses on the following values:
a. Ownership and productive involvement of the urban poor and their institutions in all processes
b. Transparency in programme design and implementation, including institution-building and capacity strengthening
c. Accountability of government functionaries and the community
d. Partnerships with industry and other stakeholders
e. Community self-reliance, self-dependence, self-help and mutual-help.
Components of NULM
· Social Mobilization and Institution Development (SM&ID) – NULM focuses on social mobilization of urban poor into Self-Help Groups and organizing them into federations. At least one member from each urban poor household, preferably a woman, should be brought under the Self-Help Group network in a time-bound manner. SHGs will act as a support system for the poor and help them meet their financial and social needs. Normally, women SHGs will be formed, however, male SHGs of handicapped persons will be allowed to be formed.
SHGs will federate at the Slum/Ward-level into an Area Level Federation (ALF). ALFs will organize into a federation at the City level as a City Level Federation (CLF). The existing area-based structures created under SJSRY – Neighbourhood Group (NHG), Neighbourhood Committee (NHC) and Community Development Society (CDS) may be suitably transformed into SHG-based structures in due course. The Area Level Federation and City Level Federations will be registered bodies.
Image: Levels of federations
Further, Resource Organizations (ROs) will be engaged to facilitate the formation of SHGs, their development and bank linkages, establishing links to ULBs and such other actions for the benefit of the urban poor. In addition, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) may be selected as a Resource Organization based on some strict criteria.
· Capacity Building and Training (CB&T) – The objective of this sub-component is to establish timely and high-quality technical assistance at Central, State and City levels to roll out and implement DAY-NULM. A National Mission Management Unit (NMMU) will be established at the Centre. Additionally, support to States and Cities would be provided for setting up of State Mission Management Unit (SMMU) and City Mission Management Unit (CMMU) with good quality livelihood and programme management professionals and developing efficient institutional systems like HR, MIS, financial management, procurement, and social management. Technical support would also be provided to the States/Cities to undertake comprehensive situational analysis to capture various dimensions of urban poverty in the State/Cities. This would help States to prioritize interventions and resources while formulating State/City Urban Poverty Reduction Strategy/Action Plans. Specific technical assistance in each of the programmatic themes would be offered to provide
implementation support to States/Cities/Towns for achieving DAY-NULM outcomes. The funds required for NMMU will be allocated to the Mission Directorate at Central level and those for SMMUs and CMMUs will be released to State Missions.
Focused attention is needed for implementation of the Mission, monitoring, evaluation, social audit and capacity building etc, in the States and UTs to achieve the goals.
· Employment through Skills Training and Placement (EST&P) – EST&P intends to provide training to the urban poor as per the skill demand from the market, so that they can set up self-employment ventures or secure salaried employment. No minimum or maximum educational qualification is prescribed for the selection of beneficiaries under EST&P. EST&P will target the urban poor subjected to occupational vulnerability. Special attention will be paid to the skill upgradation of vulnerable groups like beggars, rag pickers, construction workers, destitute, etc. Skill training will be linked to accreditation and certification and preferably be undertaken on a Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) mode.
· Self-Employment Programme (SEP)- The under-employed and unemployed urban poor will be encouraged to set up small enterprises relating to manufacturing, servicing and petty business for which there is considerable local demand. Local skills and local crafts will be particularly encouraged. Setting up both individual and group micro enterprises will be supported.
· Support to Urban Street Vendors – This component aims at skilling of street vendors, supporting micro-enterprise development, credit enablement and pro-vending urban planning along with supporting social security options for vulnerable groups such as women, SCs/STs and minorities. Up to 5 percent of the total DAY-NULM budget will be spent on this component. Under DAY-NULM, states and cities will conduct a periodic socio-economic survey of street vendors, register street vendors and issue Identity cards for street vendors. A database of street vendors will be developed and maintained in each city. This will enable States/ULBs to prepare pro-vending urban planning and provide space for street vending.
· Scheme of Shelter for Urban Homeless (SUH) – The main objective of Scheme of Shelter for Urban Homeless (SUH) is to provide shelter and all other essential services to the poorest of the poor segment of urban societies. The shelters should be permanent all-weather 24/7 shelters for the urban homeless.
· Innovative and Special Projects – This component will focus on the promotion of novel initiatives in the form of innovative projects. These initiatives may take the form of pioneering efforts, aimed at catalysing sustainable approaches to urban livelihoods through Public, Private, Community Partnership (P-P-C-P), demonstrating a promising methodology or making a distinct impact on the urban poverty situation through scalable initiatives. The projects must demonstrate strategies to create long-term and sustainable livelihood opportunities and may cover organisation of the urban poor, formulation and implementation of innovative skill development programmes, provision of support infrastructure, technology, marketing, capacity building, etc., or a combination of these. Innovative / special projects may be undertaken in a partnership mode involving CBOs, NGOs, semi-government Organisations, private sector, industry associations, government departments/ agencies, urban local bodies, national/state/city resource centres or international organisations.
Performance
In the first week of November 2023, the Union Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry had released a budget of Rs 5,387 crore for the DAY-NULM out of the Central share of Rs 6,404 crore, as per the ministry data.
DAY-NULM has brought more than 89.33 lakh women under different Self-Help Groups (SHGs). Around 8.74 lakh SHGs are there in total. Of these, 6.12 lakh SHGs are aided with a revolving fund of Rs 10,000 each to get started. This fund has been given to those SHGs who have been doing Thrift and Credit (T&C) activities for at least six months. 15 lakh beneficiaries had undergone skill training and out of them, around 8.20 lakh have been placed in employment.
The mission had conducted surveys in order to get the data on the number of street vendors in 3,467 cities. A total of 53.76 lakh vendors were identified and given letters of recommendation. Among them, 37.52 lakh vendors were issued certificates of vending and 30.99 lakh got ID cards. The cities that were selected for the pilot project are Guwahati, Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam, Bhubaneswar, Puri, Rourkela, Kolkata, Durgapur, Surat, Ahmedabad, Dahod, Lucknow, Varanasi, Thiruvananthapuram, Agra, Kochi, Bhopal, Ujjain, Indore, Chennai, Tirupur, Agartala, Chamba, Aizawl and Patna.
The pilot project aimed to create common interest groups of different categories of workers. The mission focused on creating social infrastructure such as labour chowks for construction workers, and the beneficiaries are subject to get access to micro credit of Rs 4 lakh for individuals and Rs 20 lakh for groups. The pilot project was approved with a budget of Rs 180 Crore. The microcredit will be subsidised at a rate of interest of 5%.
DAY-NULM has empowered 98 lakh urban poor households through the creation of self-help groups, created over 38 lakh livelihoods through skill training and entrepreneurship, and built almost 2000 permanent shelters for the urban homeless. Till July 2024, 8,11,253 loans have been disbursed to SHGs under the NULM Bank linkage Programme
The Ministry launched PM SVANidhi scheme on June 01, 2020, to address the challenges faced by Street Vendors and help them resume their businesses which were adversely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. More than 57.83 lakh street vendors have been provided with 1st term loan, more than 16.23 lakh with 2nd term loan, and 2.16 lakh with 3rd term loan. All this has been achieved within 43 months, during which the nation witnessed three waves of the pandemic.
Impact
DAY-NULM has dedicated the government’s resources and skills towards the urban poor in order to alleviate poverty and ensure that each and every household has better access to basic amenities, health, housing and such facilities that help in shaping a better future.
DAY-NULM facilitates coverage of urban poor households under schemes such as Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY), Jan Shree Bima Yojana (JSBY). As of June 20, 2024, Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Urban (PMAY-U) has made significant progress in its goal of providing affordable housing. The scheme has sanctioned a total of 1.8 crore houses, with 1.14 crore houses grounded for construction, and 84.02 lakh houses completed.
NULM has extended its coverage to all the 4,041 statutory cities and towns across 35 states and UTs, thereby covering most of India’s urban population. Through its outreach efforts, it has formed over 9,55,377 SHGs, created 38,12,981 livelihoods and trained 15,39,225 across India.
Emerging issues
Over-emphasis on Self Help Groups – SHGs have proven to be an efficient tool to bring the women of urban poor households together and provide them with a chance to monetize their skills, creating an entrepreneurial platform to showcase their ability to utilise the opportunities available. But some believe that the concept of SHG has been over-utilised. In some areas, there have been instances of overcrowding of SHGs, which led to added complexities.
Delay in Census report – The Mission is being implemented on the basis of the last census which was conducted in the year 2011. The 16th Indian Census, or the 2021 Census of India, was initially scheduled for 2021 but faced delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It is now expected to be conducted in 2025 and with completion anticipated in 2026. The four-year delay from the original schedule can affect the process of implementation in many ways. Census is crucial for the government as it relies on the data for policy-making. Outdated data can lead to ineffective policies and implementation. It can result in resource misallocation.
Inefficient implementation – The benefits and schemes often announced at the upper level, at times, are not implemented properly at the lower level. Sometimes, the NGOs help in providing these people with basic amenities.
Way Forward
The DAY-NULM has been instrumental in elevating the urban poor through SHGs, NGOs, loans and so on. In some ways, DAY-NULM can help in focusing on these areas:
Focus on education – In order to face today’s competitive market, the level of education and skill needs to be increased substantially, to avail the upcoming opportunities. Hence, upskilling and reskilling are of critical importance to widen their options and improve their living standards in urban areas. Many families choose to employ their children somewhere and give less importance to education. More awareness programmes are needed in these areas to enhance the importance and role of education. Any kind of encouragement schemes towards education can also help bridge this gap. Gender discrimination can further hamper girls’ education, to reduce this, gender sensitisation campaigns can be conducted.
Digital Literacy – In the age of the internet, it is crucial to navigate through information. People need to be aware of the pros and cons of the internet and how it can be put to positive use. Digitization will help in both education and communication.
Focusing on Traditional art – Each and every corner of India is filled with indigenous artistry skills. These skills need to be revived and preserved properly. The beautiful craftsmanship which are long forgotten need to be upheld which can give rise to new demands and increase imports.
Keeping records – keeping a tally of the transactions is very important for the self-help groups. With the help of digital literacy and some guidance on how to utilize the resources, keeping records will become easier, which will lead them to maintain a proper and reliable history of their actions. This history can later be utilised by banks for loan sanctions and other verifications.
Conclusion
The DAY-NULM ended in March 2024. In June, 2023, the Union Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry signed a three-year MoU with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) for collaboration on DAY-NULM. The Ministry had stated on 21st June, 2023, that NULM 2.0 will cover eight cities in the initial phase.
References
1. ACCESS Development Services, Chiplunkar, G., Goldberg, P. K., Patwardhan, V., Hay, K., Bharti, A., Thakurta, S., Raghunathan, N., Trivedi, P., Gupta, R., Chakraborty, S., Mankad, S., M, M., Mitra, S., Nundy, N., Misra, A., Pal, P., Mitra, R., Mohan, A., . . . Swaminathan, H. (2024). State of India’s Livelihoods Report 2024 (Y. Atmavilas, Ed.). ACCESS Development Services. https://livelihoods-india.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/SOIL-Report-2024-.pdf
2. FAQ. (n.d.). https://nulm.gov.in/FAQs.aspx
3. Livelihood mission 2.0 for urban poor to focus on 6 groups such as domestic, sanitation, gig workers – Times of India. (n.d.). The Times of India. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/livelihood-mission-2-0-for-urban-poor-to-focus-on-6-groups-such-as-dometic-sanitation-gig-workers/articleshowprint/113972835.cms?val=3728
4. Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment. (n.d.). https://pib.gov.in/PressNoteDetails.aspx?NoteId=153748&ModuleId=3®=3&lang=1
5. Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs. (n.d.). https://pib.gov.in/PressNoteDetails.aspx?NoteId=152011&ModuleId=3®=3&lang=1%20(PMAY%202.0)
6. Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment. (n.d.-b). https://pib.gov.in/PressNoteDetails.aspx?NoteId=150970&ModuleId=3®=3&lang=1
7. MoHUA organises “Utkrishtata ki Ore Badhte Kadam” event, awarding best performers under PM SVANidhi and DAY-NULM. (n.d.). https://pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2034095
8. Nath, D. (2024, October 6). Centre plans common interest groups, social infra, micro-credit for urban poor workers across 25 cities. The Indian Express. https://indianexpress.com/article/india/centre-plans-common-interest-groups-social-infra-micro-credit-for-urban-poor-workers-across-25-cities-9605710/
9. STANDING COMMITTEE ON HOUSING AND URBAN AFFAIRS, MINISTRY OF HOUSING AND URBAN AFFAIRS, & Reddy, M. S. (2024). SECOND REPORT. In LOK SABHA SECRETARIAT [Report]. https://sansad.in/getFile/lsscommittee/Housing%20and%20Urban%20Affairs/18_Housing_and_Urban_Affairs_2.pdf?source=loksabhadocs (Original work published 1946)
About the Contributor – Suranjana Mitra is a Research Intern at IMPRI and holds a postgraduate degree in Political Science. She has a strong interest in public policy analysis and policy making.
Acknowledgment – The author extends sincere gratitude to the IMPRI team for reviewing the article and for providing the opportunity to write the article.
Disclaimer: All views expressed in the article belong solely to the author and not necessarily to the organisation.
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