Eastern Mirror Desk
Dimapur, Aug. 29: The North East Rural Livelihood Project (NERLP) has empowered the region’s rural population, and improved the livelihood of around 3,00,000 households in 1,645 villages across the four NE states of Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura and Sikkim.
Under the project, 10,462 boys and girls have been trained in various job skills, out of which 5,494 have already been employed, according to an update from the Press Information Bureau (PIB).
The NERLP is a multi-state livelihood project under the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), launched in 2012. It is currently being implemented in Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura and Sikkim.
The project aims to improve rural livelihood—especially that of women, unemployed youth and the most disadvantaged—in the four states.
According to the PIB, the project has impacted the lives of around 18,00,000 people with creation of common economic assets worth around total INR 136 crore.
These include community projects executed by 1,114 Community Development Groups (CDGs) with total outlay of INR 105 crore and 176 rural infrastructure projects under the Model Livelihood Cluster and Value Chain Development with a total investment of INR 31 crore.
The CDGs are formed comprising three members from each family in order to develop Community Development Plan (CDP) with project funding of up to INR10 lakh, it stated.
The activities under CDP include reclamation of wasteland, construction of check-dams, plantation, horticulture projects, provision of village electrification through hydrogen, provision of solar lighting, spring water harvest to mitigate water needs for homestead farming, animal rearing, health and sanitation. The CDPs are impacting the villages in ‘big ways’ since village communities – members of the CDGs—have selected what is most pertinent for their own progress and development, it maintained.
Rural infrastructure projects include commodities collection centres, roadside marketing shed, processing units, pig breeding units, slaughterhouses, fish hatcheries and many other units and centres.
It stated that across the districts in the four states, livelihood activities pursued by SHGs have increased, thereby increasing the family incomes.
