National Urban Livelihoods Mission

The Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation launched the National Urban Livelihoods Mission (NULM) on 23 September 2013. The NULM replaced the Swarna Jayanti Shahari Rozgar Yojana (SJSRY). It was launched to uplift the conditions of the urban poor. It also strives for skill training of the urban poor for self-employment and market-based jobs, facilitating easy access to credit.

NULM aims at universal coverage of the urban poor for credit facilities and skill development. It also provides social security, skills, institutional credit and suitable spaces to urban street vendors and also exposes them to the potential of emerging market opportunities. It provides shelter with essential services to the urban homeless in a phased manner.

Components of NULM

Below are the components of the NULM.

• Social Mobilisation and Institution Development (SM&ID)

This component envisages the social mobilisation of the poor in urban areas into Self-Help Groups (SHGs) and federations. These groups act as a support system for the urban poor to meet their social and financial needs.

It gives importance to mobilising vulnerable sections of the urban population, such as STs, SCs, minorities, beggars, persons with disabilities, rag pickers, domestic workers, etc. A maximum of Rs.10,000 is provided for one SHG formation, bank linkage, training of all the members and other related activities.

• Employment through Skills Training and Placement (EST&P)

This component provides training to the urban poor as per the skill demand from the market. The training will help the urban poor obtain secure salaried employment or set up self-employment ventures. There is no educational qualification prescribed to select beneficiaries under EST&P.

The cost for a beneficiary should not be more than Rs.15,000. The cost for a beneficiary should not exceed Rs.18,000 for Special Category and the North-Eastern States. Training is undertaken on a Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) mode involving institutes like NITs, ITIs, management institutes, engineering colleges, polytechnics and other reputed entities in private, government and civil society sectors.

• Capacity Building and Training (CBT)

This component establishes high-quality and timely technical assistance at the State, Centre and city levels to implement NULM. A National Mission Management Unit will be established at the Centre. A State Mission Management Unit and City Mission Management Unit are set up to support the States and cities.

These Mission Management Units will be supported to develop efficient institutional systems like financial management, procurement, HR and social management. The ceiling amount will be Rs.7,500 per trainee, which can be used for capacity building and training at the Centre, State or city level.

• Self-Employment Programme (SEP)

This component focuses on providing financial assistance to urban poor groups or individuals for setting up gainful micro-enterprises or self-employment ventures as per their training, aptitude, skills and local conditions. The under-employed and unemployed urban poor will be encouraged to set up small enterprises relating to manufacturing, servicing and petty businesses that have considerable local demand.

There is no educational qualification prescribed to select beneficiaries. The project cost ceiling is Rs.10 lakh for group enterprises and Rs.2 lakh for individual enterprises. An interest rate of around 7% on bank loans is provided for setting up a group or individual enterprise.

• Scheme of Shelter for Urban Homeless (SUH)

This component provides shelters and other necessary services to the poor segment of urban societies. The shelters provided for the urban homeless are permanent. Provisions are made for permanent community shelters for every one lakh urban population for a minimum of 100 persons.

The basic common amenities and facilities, such as electricity, water, sanitation, kitchen, etc., would be given at the shelters. The government will provide funds for up to 60% of the construction cost of the shelters, and the state will contribute the remaining 40%. In the case of North-Eastern States, the state and Centre funding ratio will be 10:90. The government will contribute 100% of the cost in respect of UTs.

• Support to Urban Street Vendors (SUSV)

This component provides skills to street vendors, thus enabling credit and supporting micro-enterprise development. It also promotes social security options for vulnerable groups such as SCs/STs, women and minorities. Up to 5% of the total budget of NULM is provided to this component.

Street vendors would also be supported to access basic social security and banking services under different government schemes. The poor street vendors can access skill training under the EST&P component in urban areas. They can also access the SEP component support for the development of micro-enterprise.

• Innovative and Special Project (ISP)

This component focuses on promoting novel initiatives in the form of innovative projects. The initiatives may be like pioneering efforts through Public, Private, Community Partnership (PPCP) aimed at catalysing sustainable approaches to urban livelihoods. They would make a distinct impact or a promising methodology on the urban poverty situation through scalable initiatives.

Special or innovative projects can be undertaken with NGOs, CBOs, private sector, semi-government organisations, government departments/agencies, industry associations, urban local bodies, international organisations or national/state/city resource centres. This component is centrally administered, and there will be no state share provision. 

Target Beneficiaries of NULM

The following are the target group for NULM:

• Homeless individuals
• Street vendors
• Urban poor

Benefits of NULM

The NULM provides both financial and non-financial benefits to the urban poor. The financial benefits are as follows:

For Self-Help Groups: SHGs belonging to the urban poor will be given bank loans at a 7% interest rate p.a. All SHGs belonging to women who repay loans on time will receive an additional 3% p.a. subvention of interest. Thus, the interest rate for SHGs belonging to women is 4% p.a.

For self-employment: Bank loans at a 7% interest rate p.a. is given to the urban poor who want to set up their entrepreneurship or microenterprises ventures. Bank loans of up to Rs.2 lakh can be availed for individual micro-ventures, while bank loans of up to Rs.10 lakh can be availed for urban groups setting up a group micro-venture.

For urban street vendors: This mission provides credit, support and skilling for urban street vendors to develop their micro-enterprises.

The non-financial benefits are as follows:

For urban street vendors: Support is provided for developing vendor markets, vending zones and informal market sectors with infrastructure and civic development such as road paving, water supply, storage spaces, solid waste disposal and lighting.

For a shelter for urban homeless: Support to state governments and Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) is provided to operate, construct and manage permanent shelters for the urban homeless.

The NULM provides various benefits to the poor living in urban areas. The different components of NULM benefit the street vendors and the formation of SHGs to support the urban poor. It aims to uplift their conditions by providing skill training for self-employment and easy access to credit.