North-East Rural Livelihoods Project (NERL)

The Northeast Rural Livelihood Project (NERLP) is a scheme under the Ministry of Development of Northeastern Region (DoNER). This scheme empowered the rural poor and improved the livelihoods of nearly 300,000 households in 1645 villages of 62 blocks falling in 11 districts of the 4 states Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura, and Sikkim. 

Under this project, the Skills development and placement have trained children in various job skills and more than half of them are employed today. 

This project aims that the improvement of rural livelihoods, especially that of women, unemployed youth, and the most disadvantaged, in four North Eastern States. 

Main objectives and highlights of the scheme 

1. Northeast Rural Livelihood Project (NERLP) is a World Bank-aided, multi-state livelihood project of the Ministry of Development of Northeastern Region (DoNER). 
2. This project was launched in 2012. 
3. The project works in partnerships with expert organizations to focus on constellate development through value chains. 
4. The NERL project affects the lives of the people, with the creation of common economic assets. This includes community projects executed by Community Development Groups (CDGs) and rural infrastructure projects under the Model Livelihood Cluster and Value Chain Development. 
5. Create sustainable community institutions around women Self-Help Groups (SHGs), Youth Groups of men and women (YG), and Community Development Groups (CDG). 
6. To build the capacity of community institutions for self-governance, bottom-up planning, and democratic functioning with unintelligibility and accountability. 
7.  Increase economic and livelihood opportunities by the followings: 

• Managing natural resources and improving agriculture for food security and income enhancement from farming and allied activities 
• Skill development of youth for employability and establishment of self-and/or group-managed enterprises 
• Establishing backward and forward linkages for economic enterprises 
• It has links with banks and other financial institutions and creates access to finance 
• Creating critical infrastructures      

       8. Develop partnerships of community institutions for natural resource management, microfinance, market linkages, and sectoral economic services. 

       9. The project was for a period of five years and covered two districts each in Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, and 5 districts in Tripura. The districts are: 

           • Mizoram - Aizawl and Lunglei 

           • Nagaland - Peren and Tuensang 

           • Sikkim - South Sikkim and West Sikkim 

           • Tripura - West Tripura, Sepahijala, Khowai, Unakoti and North Tripura 

Eligibility: 

The following people of the northeastern region to get the benefit from this project. This project is only for the particular area of the northeastern region.  

• Women,  

• SHG (Self Help Groups) members and 

• unemployed youth. 

The project has focused on five basic development strategies: 

• Social empowerment 

• Economic empowerment 

• Partnership development 

• Project management 

• Livelihood & value chain developments 

How to apply? 

Applications should be submitted in the prescribed format to the District Project Management Unit office/Block Project Facilitation Team offices. For more details, you can visit the official website of nerlp.