Himachal Pradesh State Rural Livelihood Mission (HPSRLM), an autonomous body under the Rural Development Department, Government of HP was formed in 2014 for the implementation of the National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM). During our partnership in 2020, HPSRLM had mobilized more than 2.26 lakh households (HHs) into 28.2K Self-Help Groups (SHGs). However multiple policy gaps hindered effective project implementation and limited the policy impact. These gaps included
- Institutional Challenges: Limited federation of SHGs in VOs and CLFs, dormant sub-committees, non-regulated institution meetings, and absence of institution infrastructure
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- Absence of SOP: As a result of the non-availability of a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) at HPSRLM, no uniform project implementation process was followed at the district level and below. HPSRLM staff lacked clarity in terms of project guidelines.
- Absence of CLF Bylaws: Although SRLM had 14 Cluster Level Federations (CLFs), none of the CLFs were registered. All these institutions were largely non-functional, with their existence mostly on paper.
- Absence of Demarcation and Saturation Strategy: There was no village demarcation mechanism and saturation strategy. As a result, focused interventions for the inclusion of excluded (eligible families) into the SRLM fold could not be designed.
- Financial Gaps: Limited availability of books of records, inadequate demand for project funds by community institutions, absence of repayment & rotation process, and non-disbursement of interest subvention for bank loans were some of the gap areas.
- Operational Gaps: HPSRLM being on mission mode, the limited mechanism has been developed to streamline the operational processes. Some of the existing operational challenges include
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- Training and Capacity Building: Training was mostly centralized, and largely depended on the availability of trainers and HPSRLM. No mechanism to organize training at the district or block level.
- Monitoring Mechanism Gaps: Absence of review mechanism, grading, audits, and Annual Action Plan (AAP) for these community institutions.
- HR and Cadres recruitment: No mechanism for HR deployment at the level of CLFs. Inadequate cadres were deployed at the community level.
