• The ministry of housing and urban affairs launched ‘SonChiraiya’, a brand and logo, for marketing of urban Self-Help Group (SHG) products. 

• This initiative will help in increasing visibility and global access for the products made by urban SHG women. 

• The ministry expects to link many more such SHG members, with a variety of professionally packaged, hand-crafted ethnic products, reaching the doorsteps of the customers globally.

• The ministry noted that Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Urban Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NULM) has focussed on equipping the urban poor women with adequate skills and opportunities, and to enable them to promote sustainable micro enterprises. 

• Over 5.7 lakh SHGs have been formed across various states/UTs with almost 60 lakh members. 

• Many of these SHGs are engaged in livelihood activities, producing goods such as handicrafts, textiles, toys, eatables and so on. These were being sold primarily in local neighbourhood markets and often faced barriers in achieving visibility and wide market access.

Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Urban Livelihoods Mission

• The ministry of housing and urban affairs (MoHUA) is implementing a centrally sponsored scheme Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Urban Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NULM) for reducing the poverty and vulnerability of urban poor households.

• It was launched on September 23, 2013 by replacing Swarna Jayanti Shahari Rozgar Yojana (SJSRY).

• It focuses on organising urban poor in their strong grassroots level institutions, creating opportunities for skill development leading to market-based employment and helping them to set up self-employment ventures by ensuring easy access to credit. 

• The primary target of NULM is the urban poor, including the urban homeless.

• At present 790 cities are under NULM. However, other towns may be allowed in exceptional cases on request of the states.

• The funding is shared between the Centre and states in the ratio of 75:25. For North Eastern and Special Category States (Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, Tripura, Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand), this ratio is 90:10.

DAY-NULM aims at:

• Mobilising urban poor women, differently-abled men and men in vulnerable occupations into thrift and credit-based Self-Help Groups (SHGs) and their federations/collectives.

• Providing dedicated expert manpower for implementation of the mission at state and city level as well as for capacity building of community institutions and government functionaries.

• Skill development of urban poor in market-oriented courses to enable them to earn sustainable livelihoods.

• Providing interest subvention on loans to individuals/groups of urban poor for setting up self-employment ventures/ micro-enterprises.

• Supporting pro-vendor planning, development of vendors’ markets, credit enablement, socio-economic survey of street vendors, their skill development and micro-enterprises development.

• Providing 24x7 permanent shelters for urban homeless, equipped with essential services.

• Promoting pioneering efforts, aimed at catalyzing sustainable approaches to urban livelihoods through Public, Private and Community Partnership (PPCP).

The mission will espouse the following values:

• Ownership and productive involvement of the urban poor and their institutions in all processes.

• Transparency in programme design and implementation, including institution building and capacity strengthening.

• Accountability of government functionaries and the community.

• Partnerships with industry and other stakeholders.

• Community self-reliance, self-dependence, self-help and mutual-help.

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