Enabling Ecosystem for Institutions of Poor and Women Towards Resilience and Growth: The Case of Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Rural Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NRLM)

This chapter is an attempt to provide a macro view of the evolutionEvolution of the Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Rural LivelihoodsLivelihood Mission (DAY-NRLM) and its key strategic levers which have created an ecosystemEcosystem for institutionsInstitutions of the poor (especially women) in rural India and their federations, to overcome structural barriers to becoming socially and economically empowered. Since the inception of the Mission, multifarious interventions have been made towards building institutionsInstitutions for the poor, and federating and strengthening these institutionsInstitutions with socialSocial and financial inclusionFinancial inclusion, skills development, livelihoodLivelihood augmentation, etc. in farm and non-farm sectors. Periodic reforms in supportive policy for these institutionsInstitutions have created space for prosperity for women, both in socialSocial and economicEconomics aspects. These institutionsInstitutions have emerged as vibrant, self-reliant institutionsInstitutions and are a sign of success in grassrootsGrassroots governanceGovernance. Further, in a phased manner, efforts at institutionInstitutions building to higher order economicEconomics activity and valueValue chain interventions have resulted in the economicEconomics prosperity of the members of Self-Help Groups (SHGs) and Producer Collectives. From an ecosystemEcosystem point of view, it can be seen that the central focus of the programme is the empowerment of women from rural India. The mobilisation and formation of the informal groups and enabling them to function as a federation of women manifests the leveraged strength of these individuals’ casual relationshipsRelationship. From institutionInstitutions building to engaging them in productionProduction cycles (at primary, secondary, and tertiary levels) the graduation approach is shown, wherein the collective strength of members is leveraged for building business organisations, improving governanceGovernance and, at large, impacting the socio-economicEconomics well-being of households and the entire collective. Along with these ecosystemEcosystem-level interventions, periodic engagement towards improving the socio-economicEconomics-political landscape of women in society has resulted in improved governanceGovernance. In this chapter, the focus is on presenting how a public sector welfare initiative with an appropriate strategy, and thoughtfully structured interventions with a step-by-step process, has alleviated poverty, increased inclusion, and brought socio-economicEconomics prosperity for rural women.