The thrust is as political as it is policy driven. It helps the BJP portray itself as a pro-rural poor party and tap into the self-help group network to spread its message.
New Delhi: As the Narendra Modi-led government gears up to face the Lok Sabha polls next year, a key message it wants to take to the people is about one of its most crucial but low-profile initiatives — push for rural livelihoods.
After being branded initially as a pro-rich government, the BJP did a quick turnaround to model itself as a pro-welfare party, and a key aspect of that was its emphasis on maximising livelihood opportunities in the rural sector through the flagship rural livelihoods scheme.
The scheme numbers
The National Rural Livelihoods Mission (NRLM) was launched by the ministry of rural development in June 2011. The scheme functions through a system of Self Help Groups (SHGs), by linking them to the formal banking sector so they can meet their financial needs through bank credits.
According to senior officials in the rural development ministry, “rural livelihoods has been pushed on a mission mode in the last two years and will continue to be a key emphasis area this financial year”.
The data available with the ministry does indicate the Modi government’s thrust on rural livelihoods. The credit-linked SHGs have seen a steep rise to 67 per cent (of total SHGs) in 2017-18 from 14 per cent when this government came to power in 2014.
Moreover, the ministry seems to have exceeded its own targets in the 2017-18 fiscal. The data shows that while the target for the number of SHGs linked to credit was 20,65,191, the actual number linked was higher at 27,11,394.
The amount of credit disbursed shows a similar trend, with the target of Rs 30,964 crore being exceeded to reach Rs 43,952 crore.
In its last full budget, the NDA government gave NRLM a budgetary allocation of Rs 5,750 crore compared to Rs 4,500 crore in the 2017-18 budget.
“As my proposals outlined indicate, focus of the government next year will be on providing maximum livelihood opportunities in the rural areas by spending more on livelihood, agriculture and allied activities and construction of rural infrastructure,” finance minister Arun Jaitley had said in his budget speech, clearly laying down the importance of NRLM.
Political significance
The push for rural livelihoods, meanwhile, has been as political as policy driven. Not only does it help the BJP portray itself as a pro-rural poor party, it also enables it to tap into the extensive SHG network to spread its message.
The experiment is similar to the one the party had tried in Gujarat where it used the widespread, well-organised and systematic use of the tentacled milk cooperative network to spread its campaign and reach out to voters.
“Focus on the rural sector, particularly livelihoods, is out of the fear of losing the very crucial rural vote. Idea is to spread the Gaaon, Gareeb, Kisaan (villages, poor, farmers) message and what better way to do it than through the SHG network,” said a source in the BJP who did not wish to be identified.