National Urban Livelihoods Mission has be restructured and launched by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation (HUPA) which replaces earlier poverty alleviation programme for the urban poor titled Swarna Jayanti Shahari Rozgar Yojana (SJSRY).
The main reason is that urban poor have a strong desire to come out of their poverty and improve their quality of life which they are unable to do .Social mobilization and strong institutional help are critical for them to come out .they lack access to lively hood opportunities and capital .
It has also expanded the beneficiaries of urban poor to include the homeless and street vendors who are invariably ignored in government programmes.
A special provision has been made for the funding of all-weather 24/7 shelters with all essential facilities for the urban homeless. In addition, up to five per cent of the NULM budget has been earmarked to provide support to urban street vendors which will include skill upgradation and development of vendor markets.
under the improved programme urban poor, especially women, will be organized into self-help groups (SHGs), while infrastructure and trained manpower will be provided to upgrade their skills in keeping with the requirements of the market. In addition, beneficiaries will be helped to secure loans if anybody wants to set up his or her own enterprise.
“This will be first time that women in cities will be organised into thrift and credit-based SHGs to meet their financial and social needs. This is the main emphasis in NULM.
Being uneducated and having no skills, the urban poor are particularly vulnerable as they are forced to work as maids, cooks, guards or in sweat shops where they toil in poor working conditions, often being denied minimum wages. The framers of the NULM have decided to give them an opportunity to learn new skills so that they can command a better salary or set up self-employed ventures.
municipal committees have been identified as nodal bodies for the implementation of NULM, they have been provided special funding to hire technical experts and also to draft civil society groups in the management of the programme since the local bodies do not have the expertise to do so.
These professionals will mobilise the women into SHGs and encourage them to develop a corpus through their savings which can be used by a member for a personal need or for setting up a small business. In addition, the women will be helped to open bank accounts so that they have access to credit. A provision of Rs. 10,000 has been made for the formation and activities of each SHG for the initial two years.