National Urban Livelihoods Mission to Focus on Skill up-Gradation, Entrepreneurship Development and Credit availability to Urban Poor: Kumari Selja

The Union Minister for Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation and Culture,

 Kum. Selja addressing at the inauguration of the Centre for North Eastern

Culture and exhibition on the 25th Anniversary of the Mizo Peace Accord, in

New Delhi on January 24, 2012. Photo © PIB

NEW DELHI (PIB) --- The Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation Minister Kumari Selja has said that the proposed National Urban Livelihoods Mission (NULM) would have specific focus on the primary issues pertaining to urban poverty such as skill up-gradation, entrepreneurship development and credit availability. In her keynote address at the National Consultation on “Mission Mode Approach to Urban Livelihoods” here today Kumari Selja said, this would help the urban poor in utilising the opportunities of wage employment and self employment created by the economic growth in the urban areas. NULM would also work with different agencies at the central, state and city level and actively seek to converge all the programmes and policies in urban areas, especially for the urban poor, so that the poor could get the benefits for which they are entitled under such programmes.

The Minister said, the government wants to build the mission with an open architecture so that it can have the flexibility of using multiple approaches and adjusting to the varied conditions prevalent in different parts of the country. She said, a concept paper of the NULM has already been circulated and though this paper envisages a particular model of implementation, funding of various activities and their inter-se allocation, however, it should not be seen as something final or binding. She said her Ministry is open to alternative suggestions and approaches and would like to create a framework which is not burdened with pre-fixed notions and can evolve over time. The Minister said the bottom line is that it should be outcome based, scalable and supported by strong and robust IT enabled implementation and monitoring system to ensure its quality and universal coverage in shortest possible time.