National Urban Livelihoods Mission (NULM)

The National Urban Livelihoods Mission (NULM) was launched by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs on 23rd September 2013, to provide self-employment opportunities and skilled wage employment.

The core idea of this initiative is to empower the poor with the right amount of resources and guidance. The scheme hopes to guide them with just that. This results in an overall improvement in their livelihoods, so that they can earn a regular, stable income, as opposed to the minimum daily wage.

At first, this mission would build strong institutions for the poor at the grassroots level and eventually link them to the entrepreneurial and startup revolution of India. The mission also aims at providing the urban poor and homeless with the shelter that has basic necessities available to them.

Additionally, the mission also addresses livelihood issues of the urban street vendors, by giving them access to suitable spaces, social security, institutional credit, and skills for the urban street vendors to enable them to access emerging market opportunities.

Employment Through Skills Training and Placement (EST&P):

The EST&P component under NULM is designed for the skill development of urban poor, as well as to upgrade their existing skills. The scheme targets the urban poor that is more prone to vulnerability in terms of occupation and helps them get the required skills through the highest quality of training so that they can be employed across the world. The mission also empowers the urban poor to set up their own businesses as an entrepreneur.

The mission also intends to bridge the gap between demand and availability of workforce by providing employable youth with skill training programs as per industrial demand. The skill training is linked to accreditation and certification and is taken up in the Public-Private Partnership Model (PPP Model).

AISECT has been implementing this mission since 2014, in four states, namely Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Punjab, and Haryana.

Key Features of The Scheme:

Social mobilization and institution development (SM&ID)
Employment through skills training and placement (EST&P)
Capacity building and training (CBT)
Self employment program (SEP)
Scheme of shelter for urban homeless (SUH)
Support to urban street vendors (SUSV)
Innovative and special project (ISP)

There are several financial benefits of the scheme. They are as follows.

Self-employment- Under this, urban poor who wish to set up their own business, can apply for the loan at a 7% rate of interest. An individual can get bank loans for up to Rs 2 lakhs, to set up their micro-enterprises, while the urban poor can receive bank loans for up to Rs. 10 lakhs.
Self-help groups- All the self-help groups of the urban poor can also avail of a loan at a 7% rate of interest. An additional interest subvention is provided to women who repay the loan in time. Hence, in terms of timely repayment of loans, the rate of interest is further reduced.

Target Group:

This scheme has a target of people belonging to urban poor families, street vendors, homeless people, and people from these sections who wish to join in the entrepreneurial revolution in India.