Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana - National Urban Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NULM)

What was DAY-NULM?

Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana - National Urban Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NULM) was a centrally sponsored mission of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs aimed at reducing the poverty and vulnerability of urban poor households. DAY-NULM concluded on 30 September 2024. It is described here as a closed mission - no new applications are being accepted under it, and any page that invites you to "apply for DAY-NULM" today is out of date.

The mission's stated objective, as recorded on the NULM portal, was to enable urban poor households to access gainful self-employment and skilled wage employment opportunities so that their livelihoods improve on a sustainable basis, through building strong grassroots institutions of the poor.

What DAY-NULM did while it ran

• Organised urban poor women into self help groups (SHGs), Area Level Federations and City Level Federations.
• Provided skill training and placement to urban poor youth.
• Provided interest subsidy on bank loans for individual and group micro-enterprises.
• Built permanent shelters for the urban homeless.
• Surveyed street vendors and issued Certificates of Vending and ID cards.

Who was eligible for DAY-NULM?

Nobody can apply now. DAY-NULM concluded on 30 September 2024, and it is not open to new beneficiaries. The following describes who was eligible while it ran, which matters mainly if you have a loan, subsidy claim or training certificate from that period.

Who was eligible while the mission was running:

• Urban poor individuals aged 18 years or above could seek a subsidised loan for an individual micro-enterprise under the Self Employment Programme (SEP-I).
• Groups of at least 5 members, with a minimum of 70% members from urban poor families and all members aged 18 or above, could seek a group enterprise loan (SEP-G).
• Self help groups formed under NULM or the earlier SJSRY scheme could access bank linkage with interest subsidy.
• Urban homeless persons could use the shelters built under the Shelter for Urban Homeless component.
• Street vendors were surveyed and issued Certificates of Vending under the Support to Urban Street Vendors component.

The mission also carried social targets: women were to be at least 30% of SEP beneficiaries, 3% of the programme was reserved for differently-abled persons, at least 15% of physical and financial targets were earmarked for minority communities, and SC and ST beneficiaries were to be covered at least in proportion to their share of the city's poor population.

Who cannot apply, and what to use instead:

• No new applicant is eligible under DAY-NULM, because the mission is closed.
• Street vendors seeking a loan are not eligible under DAY-NULM's street vendor component today; the live scheme is PM SVANidhi, where lending runs until 31 March 2030.
• New self-employment loan seekers cannot apply under SEP; check the successor urban poverty alleviation pilot in your city, or central schemes such as PM SVANidhi if you are a street vendor.
• Skill training seekers cannot enrol under the mission's Employment through Skills Training and Placement component.

What were the components of DAY-NULM?

The mission ran through the following components, whose guidelines remain published on nulm.gov.in:

• Social Mobilisation and Institutional Development (SM&ID) - formation of SHGs, Area Level Federations and City Level Federations, and revolving fund support to them.
• Capacity Building and Training (CB&T) - building the capability of mission staff, ULBs and community institutions.
• Employment through Skills Training and Placement (EST&P) - skill training for urban poor youth, linked to placement.
• Self Employment Programme (SEP) - interest subsidy on loans for individual and group micro-enterprises, SHG bank linkage and credit cards for working capital.
• Shelter for Urban Homeless (SUH) - construction and operation of permanent shelters.
• Support to Urban Street Vendors (SUSV) - survey of vendors, issue of Certificates of Vending and ID cards, and vending zone planning.
• Innovative and Special Projects (I&SP) - pilots and area-specific interventions.

How much financial assistance did DAY-NULM provide?

Under the Self Employment Programme, the assistance took the form of an interest subsidy rather than a cash grant. The borrower paid 7% a year, and the difference between 7% and the bank's prevailing rate of interest was paid to the bank under NULM. Interest subsidy was released only where repayment was timely, certified by the bank, with claims submitted monthly and settled quarterly by the Urban Local Body.

All scheduled commercial banks, regional rural banks and cooperative banks on the Core Banking Solution platform were eligible to claim the interest subvention. No collateral was taken - in line with the RBI circular of 6 May 2010, banks do not take collateral for loans up to Rs 10 lakh to micro and small enterprises, and only the assets created were hypothecated.

There was no minimum educational qualification for a SEP beneficiary. However, financial assistance was extended only after the applicant acquired the skills needed for the proposed enterprise, and the ULB arranged a 3-7 day Entrepreneurship Development Programme covering enterprise management, basic accounting, financial management, marketing, costing and revenue.

How to apply under DAY-NULM (historical process, now closed)

DAY-NULM is closed, so these steps cannot be completed today. They are recorded because pending cases from before 30 September 2024 followed this route.

1. The applicant submitted an intent letter on plain paper to the Urban Local Body with name, age, contact details, address, Aadhaar details, loan amount required, bank account number and type of enterprise. Intents could also be sent by post or email, and were accepted throughout the year.
2. The ULB entered the intent in a register or MIS, generated a waiting list and issued an acknowledgement with a unique registration number for tracking.
3. Applicants were called in waiting-list order to complete documentation and fill the Loan Application Form with activity details, identity proof, address proof and bank account details.
4. The application was sponsored by the ULB to the bank, after a Task Force at ULB level screened cases.
5. On disbursement, the bank sent details of the loan and the interest subsidy amount to the ULB, which released the subsidy to the bank on a quarterly settlement cycle.

What did DAY-NULM achieve before it closed?

The Press Information Bureau's December 2024 note recorded progress up to 30 September 2024:

• Over 1 crore urban poor women mobilised into more than 9.96 lakh self help groups and their federations.
• Over 39.39 lakh livelihoods created through skill training and placement, subsidised credit for micro-enterprises, and savings-corpus based bank linkages to SHGs.
• 1,994 permanent shelters built, with total capacity for 1.41 lakh urban homeless.
• Around 71.65 lakh street vendors identified through survey in 3,471 cities, of whom over 38.87 lakh were issued Certificates of Vending and over 32.59 lakh were issued ID cards.
• Rs 5,733.10 crore spent as central assistance to states and UTs.

In the six months from June to November 2024 alone, 35,612 new SHGs with 1,92,079 members were formed, 23,502 SHGs received a revolving fund, 43,521 beneficiaries were assisted with micro-enterprise loans and 21,194 street vendors were issued Certificates of Vending.

What comes after DAY-NULM?

The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs has proposed a successor scheme, Deendayal Jan Aajeevika Yojana, on urban poverty alleviation. Its aim is to reduce the vulnerability of urban poor households by expanding self-employment and skilled wage employment and by strengthening community institutions.

The new mission focuses on six vulnerable occupational groups - construction workers, transport workers, gig workers, domestic workers, waste workers and care workers. A pilot launched in October 2024 is running in 25 diverse cities, including industrial hubs and migrant centres, with a total budgetary outlay of Rs 180 crore, using a test-learn-scale approach; on the Ministry of Finance's direction the pilot is being extended to all Urban Local Bodies to prepare for a nationwide roll-out.

The proposed mission has five components: community-led institutional development, financial inclusion and enterprise development, social infrastructure, convergence, and innovative and special projects. It envisages covering nearly 2.5 crore urban poor households.

Where to get help on a pending DAY-NULM case

• Your Urban Local Body's DAY-NULM cell or City Mission Management Unit for loan sponsorship records, subsidy claims and SHG documents.
• State Urban Livelihoods Mission (SULM) in your state's urban development department for escalations.
• Your lending bank branch for interest subvention already claimed against your loan account.
• nulm.gov.in for the archived component guidelines.

If you are a street vendor, take your Certificate of Vending or vendor ID card to the PM SVANidhi portal at pmsvanidhi.mohua.gov.in - that scheme is open, and the identity documents issued to you under DAY-NULM remain valid proof of vending.