Govt’s urban livelihood mission to cover 3,250 more local bodies

The centre has extended the National Urban Livelihood Mission (NULM) to all the 4,041 statutory urban local bodies in the country. NULM is now renamed 'Deen Dayal Antyodaya Yojana-NULM' (Deen Dayal Antyodaya Yojana-Rashtriya Shahri Aajeevika Mission in Hindi).

The mission seeks to enhance employment opportunities and incomes of the urban poor through skill development and training, setting up of individual and group micro-enterprises, formation of self-help groups, building shelters for homeless, supporting street vendors in creating infrastructure, innovative support to rag pickers, differently abled etc.

NULM, introduced in 2013, is being presently implemented in only 791 cities across the country covering all district headquarters and cities and towns with a population of above one lakh each. Now all the states and union territories have been empowered to implement DAY-NULM in all the remaining 3,250 statutory urban local bodies even if they have a population of less than one lakh each.

In Tamil Nadu, the highest number of 681 towns will now be covered under DAY-NULM while at present only 40 cities are implementing this pro-poor scheme. This is followed by UP 566 (82), Madhya Pradesh 310 (54), Maharashtra 213 (53), Karnataka 186 (34), Gujarat 160 (35), Rajasthan 145 (40), Chattisgarh 140 (28), Punjab 118 (25), Bihar 97 (42), Andhra Pradesh and Telangana 78 (47), Odisha 74 (33), West Bengal 66 (63), Jammu & Kashmir-64 (22), Uttarakhand 58 (16), Haryana 58 (22), Himachal Pradesh 46 (10) and Kerala 45 (14) while in Goa 12 new towns will be covered as against only two towns at present.

In the Northeastern states, 130 new towns will be included for the implementation of DAY-NULM as against 88 towns at present. Among the union territories, one more town will be covered in Pudcherry.

In all, DAY-NULM will benefit urban poor in 1,505 new towns in the North, 991 towns in the South, 375 in the West, 249 in the East and 130 more towns in the North-East.

In another modification of the existing scheme of NULM where in the implementing cities are required to implement all the components of the scheme, new towns to be covered can implement any one are a combination of the components.

Under 'Employment through Skill Training and Placement' component of DAY-NULM, an expenditure of Rs15,000 per person is allowed on training of urban poor which is Rs18,000 in North-East and J&K. Under revised norms, cost of training has been increased by 5 per cent.

Under 'Social Mobilisation and Institution Development' through formation of Self-Help Groups for training members and hand holding, an initial support of Rs10,000 is given for each group. For Registered Area Level Federations of such groups, assistance of Rs50,000 is provided.

Urban poor are also assisted with interest subsidy of 5-7 per cent for setting up individual micro-enterprises with a loan of up to Rs2 lakh and for group enterprises with a loan limit of up to Rs10 lakh.

Cost of construction of shelters for urban homeless is fully funded under the scheme with each such shelter accommodating at least 50 homeless is funded under DAY-NULM.

Other means of helping the urban poor is through setting up infrastructure for street vendors and innovative and special projects for rag pickers, differently abled etc.