Livelihood support for returnees under NRLM in Jharkhand

RANCHI: The Jharkhand government has taken initiatives to provide immediate relief to returnees under the National Rural Livelihoods Mission (NRLM), an official statement said.
Migrant workers seeking to join agriculture, animal husbandry and other subsidiary sectors for self-employment were being linked with the NRLM to get immediate relief, it said.
The NRLM is a poverty alleviation project implemented by the ministry of rural development.
"the willing migrants are being linked to farming activities under which seeds have been made available to them to ensure a source of income for the returnees.
"Paddy, arhar, maize, millet, urad, moong, groundnut seeds are being made available to 'Sakhi Mandals' (women self-help groups) in the state, as per the the direction of Aradhana Patnaik, Secretary, department of Rural Development", the statement said.
Family members of the returnees are also included in the initiative.
Distribution of about 4370.49 quintal seeds has been ensured to enable farming activities by the returnees, it said.
With lakhs of migrants returning to the state due to coronavirus outbreak, the rural development department has also carried out a survey to collect information about their skill, interest and other details through Mission Saksham mobile app and a database of about 4.56 lakh migrant labourers has been prepared so far, it said.
Around 37.2 per cent of the returnees are interested in farming and willing to start agriculture-based livelihood while 13.8 per cent of them expressed a desire to engage in animal husbandry.
In addition, financial assistance was also extended to millions of families in rural areas through Sakhi Mandals directly under the NRLM in the face of the pandemic, it said.
"Recently, an amount of Rs 75 crore was made available to 50,000 Sakhi Mandals of the state by Chief Minister Hemant Soren.
"This is a big step in the direction of livelihood promotion in rural areas," it said.