BHUBANESWAR : The Swarnajayanti Gram Sworajgar Yojana (SGSY), the massive self-e

mployment programme of the Government, will now be implemented in a mission mode

under a restructured scheme called National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM). Th
e NRLM to be launched from the current financial year is aimed at mobilising all
the rural BPL households under self-help groups (SHGs) and enhance their capaci
ty for gainful self-employment on a sustainable basis by 2016-17. The need for r
estructuring SGSY was felt after 10 years of its implementation as it failed to
address the core issue of bringing the assisted poor families above the poverty
line by providing them income generating assets through a mix of bank credit and
Government subsidy. The mid-term appraisal of the Centrally-sponsored self-empl
oyment programme showed that inadequate infrastructure and insufficient capacity
building mechanism as major constraints. In the absence of a dedicated structur
e, the scheme was executed through the district rural development agencies (DRDA
s) of the Panchayati Raj Department. While the DRDAs are overburdened with sever
al other poverty reduction programmes, inadequate manpower and lack of professio
nals to implement the complex and process oriented schemes failed to achieve the
desired result, admitted the draft paper on NRLM circulated by the Ministry. La
ck of convergence among administrative departments during execution of self-empl
oyment programmes and absence of a grievance redressal mechanism were the other
weaknesses of the SGSY. The NRLM will have a dedicated structure from block to t
he State level. The State-level mission will be headed by the Chief Minister and
an executive committee headed by the Chief Secretary will function under it. A
project management unit (PMU) will be constituted at the State level and the PMU
will be headed by a chief executive officer who will be in the rank of Commissi
oner-cum-Secretary. The district-level committee will be headed by an officer of
the rank of DRDA project director and a team of functional specialists in the f
ield of social mobilisation, capacity building, micro finance, micro enterprise,
marketing, information, education and communication will assist him. However, t
he district unit will function independently of the DRDA. There will be a block-
level unit which will function under a block coordinator. The major function of
the block unit will be to bring BPL families under SHG fold and build the capaci
ties of the members. However, the existing funding pattern of SGSY will continue
for NRLM. The Central assistance will be 75 per cent while the State share will
be 25 per cent.