JAMMU, Feb 15: The Jammu and Kashmir administration is taking forward the Union government’s National Rural Livelihoods Mission (NRLM) to reduce poverty in the union territory by building strong grassroots institutions, an official said on Tuesday.
NRLM, implemented by the Union Ministry of Rural Development, is focusing on promoting self-employment and organisation of rural people, especially the poor, he said.
“The basic idea behind this programme is to organise the poor into Self Help Groups (SHGs) and make them capable of self-employment. In Jammu and Kashmir, this programme is being operated as the Jammu-Kashmir State Rural Livelihood Mission (JKSRLM),” the spokesman said.
He said the project aims to reduce poverty in the union territory by building strong grassroots institutions for the poor, engaging them in gainful livelihood interventions and ensuring appreciable improvement in their income on a sustainable basis.
“This programme also aims to enable the poor to think positively about themselves and their family, and reap all benefits of government schemes, which ultimately helps them live a life of contentment, happiness, and dignity,” he added.
The spokesperson said JKSRLM’s mandate is to reach out to 66 per cent of the rural population across the 125 blocks of Jammu and Kashmir.
The core values which guide all the activities under JKSRLM are inclusion of the poorest and substantial role of the poorest in all the processes, transparency and accountability of all processes and institutions, proprietorship and key role of the poor and their institutions in all the stages – planning, implementation and monitoring and lastly community self-reliance and self-dependence, he said.
In Jammu and Kashmir, a number of projects are running under JKSRLM, of which Mahila Kisan Sashaktikaran Pariyojana (MKSP) and Start-Up Village Entrepreneurship Programme are making remarkable progress, the spokesperson said.
MKSP is a sub-component of Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-NRLM and aims to empower women in agriculture. The spokesman said its objective is to strengthen small agriculturists through the promotion of sustainable agriculture practices such as Community Managed Sustainable Agriculture, Non-Pesticide Management, Zero Budget Natural Farming, Pashu-Sakhi Model for doorstep Animal Care Services and Sustainable Regeneration and Harvesting of Non-Timber Forest Produce.
Additionally, the focus of MKSP is on capacitating the smallholders to adopt sustainable climate change resilient agro-ecology, eventually creating a pool of skilled community professionals, he said.
The Start-up Village Entrepreneurship Programme (SVEP) envisages assisting rural households, including women, to set up enterprises that aid them in their financial upliftment.
Moreover, building support is provided to all the entrepreneurs backed under the SVEP through Community Resource Persons for Enterprise Promotion, he said.
JKSRLM (Umeed) under (DAY-NRLM) has a vision of reaching out to approximately nine lakh rural women, he said.
The Jammu and Kashmir government has made remarkable progress under SRLM and has provided training as well as financial support to various SHGs and made them self-sufficient, the spokesman added.
Giving an example, he said one Pammi Devi, along with other SHG members from Bishnah block, obtained a 30-day training and acquired the skills of making jams, pickles, sauces, chutneys and concentrates.
The training was a part of JKRLM’s vision of making the rural women self-reliant and thus enabling them to start a lucrative livelihood.
“Seeing her zest, the mission motivated and helped her in starting a food processing and preservation unit in Rehal in convergence with the department of horticulture,” the spokesperson said.
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