Karnataka will implement modified National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM) in 20 taluks in five districts.
NRLM is a poverty-alleviating scheme formulated by the Union Government. The state government has renamed it as ‘Sanjeevini'.
“Karnataka has tweaked the mission to include social, financial and economic inclusion while rolling out the scheme in the districts,” said Ms Amita Prasad, Principal Secretary, Karnataka Rural Development and Panchayat Raj department.
“Under Sanjeevini, instead of giving an allocation, we plan to follow a demand-driven strategy to allocate funds. This strategy facilitates state government to independently form its own process for poverty alleviation,” she added.
The Swarnjayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana (SGSY) was launched by the Union government in 1999 with a focus on self employment programme through mobilisation of people in below poverty line (BPL).
It did not succeed in fully alleviating poverty. It is in this context, the Ministry of rural development decided to restructure the SGSY into NRLM.
Mr Jagadish Shettar, State Minister for Rural Development and Panchayat Raj, said “The state government has decided to implement Sanjeevini in a phased manner by covering 20 taluks every year and cover the entire state in 5-7 years.
“With a budget of Rs 120 crore for this year, we plan to take up the first phase, where in 20 taluks in five districts will be covered,” he added.
The following are the districts in phase I roll out of Sanjeevini in the state: Belgaum (Athani, Gokak, Soundatti and Hukkeri), Dharwad (Khalgatgi, Kundagol and Navalgund) Gulbarga (Gulbarga, Jewargi, Sedam and Aland), Mysore (H D Kote, Hunsur, Nanjangud and T Narsipura) and Tumkur (Gubbi, Kunigal, Madhugiri, Pavagada and Korategere.
Ms Prasad said “For effective roll out and implementation of the scheme, we are planning to offer entrepreneurship training through rural development self employment training (Rudset) institutes and also take assistances of self help groups and NGOs.
“Sanjeevini will also undertake programmes for enhancing existing livelihood options for the poor, build skill sets to suite the job market and also nurture self-employment. The scheme will help facilitate formation of federations at district levels to market their produce in bigger cities,” she added.
According to Dr K.G. Jagadeesh, Mission Director, Sanjeevini, “The state government is planning to conduct a detail survey of BPL families and their current status. It is mainly a livelihood profiling exercise at the gram panchayat and zilla panchyat level.
“Based on the survey, intervention measures will be formulated and tailored to the needs of the BPL families at grass root level,” he added.