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Existence and persistence of inequality in developing counties is not something new. India is no exception to this. The main causes of disparity in India as identified are mainly due to poverty, gender, religion and cast. Low income level which constitutes a huge section of the population is due to unemployment and underemployment and low rate of labor productivity. The problem of inequality persists across the world economy. This problem is more prominent in developing economies as compared to developed economies. The informal sector constitutes a large part of the developing as well as developed countries economy. Informal sector implies absence of proper rule, absence of regulations, and professional code of conduct in employment sector. The huge growth of informal sector is primarily due to poverty, hunger low literacy rate. Poverty is such a chronic problem which is a constraint in the process of economic development of a country. The issue of poverty persists in every country across the globe in different extent. India being the world second largest in terms of population is suffering from the chronic ailment named poverty. In 1938 as per recommendation of National Congress, eradication of poverty was prioritized as an agenda in Indian Five year plans since then. Since then, poverty eradication programmes have been undertaken over the years. Swarna Jayanti Shahari Rozgar Yojana was one such programme which targeted at urban poverty reduction. Swarna Jayanti Shahari Rozgar Yojana (SJSRY) was the largest ground breaking, launched in 1997 by Ministry of Housing & Urban Poverty alleviation (MHUPA), Government of India, with an objective of providing employment urban poor and generation of self employment. But unfortunately due to certain reason this programme couldn’t achieve the desired outcome. Subsequently realizing the need of launching a mission mode approach National Urban Livelihoods Mission (NULM) programme has been launched in 2013, by Government of India subsuming the earlier programme Swarna Jayanti Shahari Rozgar Yojana.

Plenty of literatures are available in the area of rural poverty eradication but few on urban poverty eradication. Srinath & Sridhar (2012) in their study mentioned about the SJSRY scheme and the causes of failure of the programme in achieving the target. NULM (2014) mission document lays down the details of NULM- its mission, vision, strategy and the targeted cities and population to be covered under this approach. NULM draft mission document (2014) also discussed about the different components of NULM approach- about skill training, wage and self employment. Zhang and Fan (2016) discussed about poverty in India, causes of poverty and its effect. They also opined, exclusion of vast section of the population from basic amenities of life is an injustice and despite growth and development of the country the problem of poverty still persists. Laxmi (2014) in his study discussed about urbanization, concept of urban poverty, its various aspects and the slums in India. Slums breeds poverty and the increasing number of slums is a serious problem in India. Yesudian (2007) discussed the different poverty alleviation programmes in India. He provided a detailed overview of the different programmes of poverty in the post economic era and made an attempt to judge the success of these programmes in eradicating poverty. Various literatures are available on different aspects of poverty but very few on urban poverty eradication. Kumari (2013) discussed the national policies, plans and programmes adopted to eradicate poverty in India. Poverty is essential to ensure economic development of a country. Barman and Saloi (2020) in their study discussed about the progress of NULM- the mission mode approach of Government of India for alleviating urban poverty with reference Guwahati city in Assam. Hani & Jyothi (2021) examined the influence of two factors namely education and family size on the effectiveness of NULM programme in Mysore city. They concluded that more SHG women members should be encouraged to participate in awareness programme of urban development.

1.     From Swarna Jayanti Shahari Rozgar Yojana (SJSRY) to National Urban Livelihoods Mission (NULM) –An Overview

SJSRY programme failed in different aspects. Some of them were

2.     obstacles in the implementation process,

3.     disparity in formation of SHGs found mostly southern states of India,

4.     lack of co-ordination between SJSRY and programmes of other ministries,

5.     constraints in respect of institutional aspects and human resource aspects in the process of co-ordination with other programmes,

6.     faulty method of selection of BPL households as target group,

7.     skill training to incapable candidates in some states,

8.     lack of capacity building and training due to inadequate infrastructural facilities, resource persons, financial constraint for self-employment component,

9.     little attention on employment of unskilled workers and

10.   Insufficient fund allocation.

11.   To overcome these failures NULM was launched.

NULM is a mission mode approach focusing on urban poverty elimination at grass root level by organising urban poor households in SHGs, building sustainable livelihood options by means of access to gainful self-employment and skilled wage employment opportunities.

Focus

        NULM focuses on poverty eradication.

Target Group

      The target group of NULM is the urban BPL households.

Mission

Generation of self-employment and skilled employment resulting in the improvement of their livelihoods on a sustainable basis, through building strong institution of the poor i.e. generation of sustainable livelihood options and providing basic amenities like food, shelter to all urban poor

Principles

1.     Poor have entrepreneurial skill and are potential enough; they have strong desire to come out of poverty

2.     Strong institutional platforms and strong social mobilizations process is of utmost importance for unleashing their potentials.

3.     Access to better livelihood options would help to improve their standard of living.

4.     Inclusion of all urban poor throughout the country in skill development training programme and access to credit facilities.

5.     Support to urban street vendors.

6.     Shelter for urban homeless.

7.     Values

8.     Involving all urban poor households in the process.

9.     Transparency in programme designing and implementation in phases.

10.   Accountability of government functionaries and community.

11.   Partnership with different industries as per requirement.

12.   Development of community network.

13.   Components of NULM

14.   Social Mobilistion & Institution Development

15.   Capacity Building & Training

16.   Employment through skill training & placement

17.   Self-Employment component

18.   Support to urban street vendors

19.   Shelter for urban homeless

Social Mobilistion & Institution Development (SMID) component of NULM focuses on the formation of SHGs and federations. SHGs will be formed with female members from urban poor households.  Area level federations will be formed with 10 to 20 SHGs of same ward or locality. ALF at city level will be represented at City level. This component includes universal financial inclusion also. The SHGs will get a Revolving Fund support of Rs10,000 as per the NULM guidelines by Government of India. Credit Guarantee support for setting up micro-enterprise to take up self-employment for livelihoods on a sustainable basis. City livelihoods Center will be established to act as a one stop shop for providing information relating to employment and skills training opportunities, and also to promote the services and products of urban poor.

Capacity Building & Training component includes providing  technical support at state, district, national level, livelihood centers at city level, training & other capacity building support, employment through skill training. Training should be provided to SHG members so that they can take up self employment or wage employment for sustainable livelihoods. State Mission Management Unit at state level will monitor the training programmes rendered by urban local Bodies.

Employment through skill training & placement (ESTP) focuses on skill training for setting up micro enterprise, wage employment, for upgradation of skill of the vulnerable group and taking up innovative & special project. Skill training will help to take up self employment by means of entrepreneurship or wage employment by grabbing the existing market opportunities. Skill training will cover training on wide range of activities and will also include financial literacy, computer literacy training etc.

Self employment programme (SEP) - which includes setting up individual enterprise, group enterprise, credit card for enterprise development and technology and marketing support. Setting up of both individual and group micro enterprises will be supported under this component. The project cost ceiling will be Rs. 2 lakh for individual enterprises and Rs. 10 Lakh for group enterprises. Individual and groups may be provided loan with interest subsidy from the banks and the application for such loans be preferably recommended by the SHGs

Support to urban street vendors (SUSV) - Cites by periodic survey will register street vendors and will provide them with identity card.  Street vendors will be provided with all sort of assistance. Poor and street vendors in urban areas can access skill training under the EST&P component of NULM and micro-enterprise development support under the SEP component of NULM

Shelter for urban homeless (SUH) – the objective is to provide permanent shelter to poorest of the poor urban segment.

The present study will focus on the second component of NULM i.e Capacity Building of SHG members under this mission programme. 

The study is based on primary data collected by a structured questionnaire. Kolkata Municipal Corporation from Kolkata district has been selected for the purpose of the study based on non-probabilistic convenient sampling method. 17 questions have been framed to collect the responses. Data collection time period was 2020-21. 51 respondents have been selected at random from the SHGs under the select KMC ward (under West Bengal State Urban Livelihoods Mission) responded to this survey. Secondary data sources that include newsletter, books, journals, magazines, articles, web resources have been used for exploratory part of the study. For analysis simple frequency, crosstabs, tables have been given. A set of hypotheses have been formulated to assess the progress in capacity building of SHG members under NULM. Chi-square test has been performed to assess the progress of NULM in capacity building of SHG members under NULM programme.

NULM has been launched by Government of India in the year 2013, and to be implemented in the urban metro cities and district head quarter towns based on population. The respective Urban Local Bodies i.e the Municipality or Municipal Corporation is entrusted with the task of implementing the programme with assistance from the respective State Urban Livelihoods Mission. In West Bengal it is the West Bengal State Urban Livelihoods Mission (WBSULM). In this study Kolkata Municipal Corporation has been selected from Kolkata district on the basis of non-probabilistic convenient sampling method. 51 members of SHGs were selected at random and they responded to the survey. Their responses have been analysed.

Progress of NULM in capacity building of SHG members

§  Demographic Profile of the Respondents

Members of SHGs

Table – 1 Member of SHGs

      (Source: Compiled by author)

It is found from the survey that 100% of the respondents are female.

Age of the Respondents

Table -2 Age of the Respondents

      (Source: Compiled by author)

1. 5.9% of respondents are from 18-25 age group, 31.4% are from 26-35 age group, 27.5% from 36-45 and 35.3% within 46-60 age group.

Religion of the Respondents

Table – 3 Religion of the Respondents

(Source: Compiled by author)

92.2% are Hindu, 7.8% are Muslim. Majority are Hindu.

Literacy Level of the Respondents

Table- 4 Literacy Level of the Respondents

(Source: Compiled by author)

For literacy level, only 3.9% of the respondents have read upto class 5, 31.4% have read upto class 5 to10, 47.1% from class 10-12, 17.6% have completed graduation.

Marital Status of the Respondents

Table -5 Marital Status of the Respondents

(Source: Compiled by author)

1. 82.4% of the respondents are married, 3.9% are unmarried, 13.7% is widow and no one is divorced.

Caste of the Respondents

Table- 6 Caste of the Respondents

(Source: Compiled by author)

7.8% of the respondents belong to reserve category i.e SC, ST, OBC and other minority category and 92.2% are from unreserved or general category.

Capacity Building of SHG Members

Have you attended training before joining SHG, if any

Table-7 Have you attended training before joining SHG, if any

(Source: Compiled by author)

64.7% of the respondents said that they have not attended any training before joining SHG under SULM, 33.5% agreed, they said they have attended training on sewing course, handicraft making courses etc.

Is there any impact of training?

Table-8 Is there any Impact of training

(Source: Compiled by author)

Only 17.6% respondent said that there is no impact of training i.e disagreed, 54.9% said that yes i.e agreed there is an impact of training which they attended, 23.6% strongly agreed and 3.9% preferred to be neutral. They mainly talked about the basic training conducted by the Urban Local Bodies after joining SHGs.

Have you attended Training after joining SHG under NULM

Table-9 Have you attended Training after joining SHG under NULM

(Source: Compiled by author)

1. 5.9% said no i.e disagreed, no one strongly disagreed, 15.7% neither agreed nor disagreed, 62.7% agreed and 15.7% strongly agreed. The urban local bodies of the respective SHGs has organised training for SHG members and they are basic trainings regarding maintenance of books of accounts, activities of SHGs.

Trainer Institution

Table-10 Trainer Institution

 

(Source: Compiled by author)

100% of the respondents said, resource organizations provided the training

Skill Training

Table-11 Skill Training

 

  (Source: Compiled by author)

1. 62.7% said no regarding skill training, 37.3% said yes they know about skill training

 

Area of training

Table-12 Area of training

 

 

  (Source: Compiled by author)

1. 64.7% said they have attended the basic training after joining the SHG regarding maintenance of accounts, benefits of joining SHG, health and hygiene awareness.

2. 19.6% includes physiotherapy, earlier before joining SHG under SULM or may be after being member of SHG since 2000. 15.7% others like beautician training course, sewing, handmade jewelleries etc.

Year of Formation of SHGs under NULM

Table-13 Year of formation of SHGs

  (Source: Compiled by author)

1. It is observed that 47.1% of SHGs under SULM have been formed during the year 2016-2019 i.e they are recently formed and about 39.2% there were already some existing SHGs under the earlier SJSRY programme.

Increase in decision making ability

Table-14 Increase in decision making ability

(Source: Compiled by author)

1. 64.7% respondents agreed that there is an increase in their decision making ability after joining SHG, 7.8% disagreed, 15.7% preferred to be neutral, 9.8% strongly agreed. Majority agreed that their decision making capability improved than before after joining SHG. Only 2% strongly disagreed.

Thinking of Self-employment before joining SHGs

Table-15 Thinking of Self-employment before joining SHGs

 (Source: Compiled by author)

1. 21.2% said yes they have thought about taking up self-employment, 78.8% said no, they were not thinking of taking up self-employment before joining SHG.

A set of hypotheses have been formulated to understand the relation between capacity building of SHG members after joining SHGS under NULM.

   Hypothesis-1

H₀ = There is no relation between impact of training received after joining SHG and training received after joining SHG

H₁ = There is relation between impact of training received after joining SHG and training received after joining SHG

Table –16 Cross tabulation of Impact of training and Training after joining SHG under SULM

 

Chi-Square Tests 

 The Chi-square value or P value at 5% level of significance is .002 which is less than .05, so we reject the Null Hypothesis and accept the alternative hypothesis. So, it can be concluded that there is impact of training received after joining SHG 

Hypothesis-2

H₀ = There is no significant relation between year of formation of SHGs (association with SHGs) SHG and increase in decision making ability.

H₁ = There is significant relation between year of formation of SHGs (association with SHGs) and increase in decision making ability.

Table- 17 Cross tabulation of participation in decision making process after joining SHG and year of formation of the SHGs under NULM

Table 19: Overall Progress of NULM in India

Source: NULM_Newsletter

The above figures reveals an increasing trend in the number of SHGs formed over months and years from 2014-2015 to 30^th June,2020 to 15^th August,2021 and also increase in number of candidates provided skill training and subsequently an increase in livelihoods created. There has been an increase in number of shelters for urban homeless and in number of street vendors issued ID cards and number of vending certificated issued.

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