DAY-NULM Lapse: Livelihood Scheme for Women Deserves Better

The Lift Line

“To risk leaving these beneficiaries adrift for want of continued support would be to betray the promise contained in slogans about women-led development invoked by parties across the spectrum.” (The Indian Express, editorial)

Why This Editorial Matters for Your Exam

This unsigned editorial in The Indian Express, published on 15 October 2026, calls the Centre’s decision to let the Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Urban Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NULM) lapse without a successor “injudicious and perplexing”. It asks both the Centre and the States to keep supporting the urban self-help groups (SHGs) the mission built.

The topic tests three things UPSC returns to often: how a central welfare scheme ends and what replaces it, the SHG model of women’s economic empowerment, and the division of responsibility between the Centre and the States. The paper’s point that States have found money for cash transfers connects to our earlier editorials on State youth allowances and on designing transfers that lift the poorest.

GS Paper 2: Welfare schemes for vulnerable sections of the population by the Centre and States and the performance of these schemes; issues relating to poverty. GS Paper 1: Role of women and women’s organisations; poverty and developmental issues; urbanisation, its problems and remedies.

In the news: The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs has told the Lok Sabha that “The implementation period of DAY-NULM ended on 30.09.2024.” The editorial argues that the women’s SHGs it built now risk being left without support.

Background and Context

DAY-NULM in brief

• The SHG figure is a cumulative count of groups formed up to 30 September 2024, not a count of groups active today.
• The editorial dates the scheme’s launch to 2014 and its end to October 2024; the ministry’s record gives a launch on 24 September 2013 and an end on 30 September 2024.

How an urban SHG works under the mission

• Poor urban women form self-help groups that build a savings corpus. That corpus is the basis for bank linkages: loans to the group from banks.
• The mission’s progress tables also track a revolving fund given to SHGs and loans to SHGs under the SHG-Bank Linkage Programme (PIB, 31 March 2022).
• SHGs join into federations: Area Level Federations (ALFs) and City Level Federations (CLFs).

What came after: a pilot and a proposal

• The proposal: in a December 2024 document, MoHUA said it “is proposing to launch a new scheme” called the Deendayal Jan Aajeevika Yojana on urban poverty alleviation. It would focus on six vulnerable occupational groups (construction, transport, gig, domestic, waste and care workers) and strengthen community institutions, through five components.
• The pilot: the Deendayal Jan Aajeevika-Shehari (DJAY-S) pilot ran from 1 October 2024 in 25 select cities, with a budgetary outlay of Rs 180 crore. In the ministry’s words, “The pilot aimed at studying these groups for making targeted schematic interventions.” The December 2024 document said the pilot was being extended to all urban local bodies, on the Ministry of Finance’s directions, to prepare for a nationwide roll-out.
• The status: a proposal is not a launched mission. The ministry’s January 2026 reply describes DJAY-S as a pilot that “was implemented”, and the editorial says the mission lapsed “without a successor”.

Who is responsible: the Centre or the States?

The ministry’s own words: “Urban Poverty Alleviation is a state subject. Government of India supplements the efforts of State Governments/UTs through programs and schematic interventions for the urban poor.”

The Centre still runs other urban schemes, though neither is an SHG mission:

The rural contrast

• The rural mission is a separate scheme.
• Under the Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Rural Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NRLM), 92 lakh SHGs have been formed, covering 10.05 crore rural women (PIB, 24 July 2026).
• The urban mission’s implementation period, by contrast, has ended.

The Analysis

1. A fact and a verdict. That DAY-NULM has ended is on the government’s own record. The paper’s verdict is that letting it lapse without a successor is “injudicious and perplexing”, given the mission’s effect on the social and financial empowerment of women.

2. What is at risk. The paper counts 10.02 lakh SHGs and more than one crore women. Its fear is that the groups lose the support that keeps their finance flowing. The States that raised the issue, it says, want funds “to ensure continued support to SHGs and prevent disruption to their access to institutional credit and bank linkages.”

3. Not a partisan complaint. Concerns over funding and the policy vacuum, the paper argues, “cut across party lines”. It names five States that have flagged the issue: Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Tripura. These are the paper’s account.

4. Why SHGs work. The paper sees “ample evidence” of what SHGs do for women: “by improving access to credit and skills, building financial literacy and leadership, and increasing self-confidence and mobility”. Its examples are State programmes: Didi ki Rasoi and Bank Sakhis under Bihar’s JEEViKA, which it says put money in women’s hands and turn them into decision-makers, and Kerala’s Kudumbashree, which it describes as “evolving from credit groups into a network involved in community kitchens, waste collection and training SHGs in other states.”

5. States, too, must do their part. The paper does not let the States off. “They have found resources for cash-transfer schemes; they must prioritise programmes for women that build enduring economic capacity.” A cash transfer supports consumption; an SHG builds skills, networks and, in the paper’s words, “a greater say in households and communities”.

6. Beyond numbers. “Going forward, it is not enough to expand SHG numbers”, the paper writes; “investment must also be made in the human resources, infrastructure, credit linkages and market networks that allow them to thrive.” It asks for “access to training, mentorship and institutional support”.

7. The government’s side. Two points temper the paper’s case. Urban poverty alleviation is, in the ministry’s words, a State subject that the Centre supplements. And the Centre has not withdrawn from urban livelihoods altogether: it ran the DJAY-S pilot, proposed a new mission, and continues PM SVANidhi. None of these, however, is a mission for women’s SHGs: the pilot studied six occupational groups, SVANidhi lends to street vendors, and PMAY-U 2.0 builds houses. That gap is the paper’s point.

Data and Institutions Vault

Prelims-grade facts:

• DAY-NULM: Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Urban Livelihoods Mission; Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs; launched 24 September 2013.
• End: implementation period ended on 30 September 2024 (Lok Sabha written reply, PIB 29 January 2026).
• Record to 30 September 2024: 10,02,545 SHGs formed; 15,42,952 candidates trained; 1,995 shelters with about 1.41 lakh beds.
• SHG federations: Area Level Federation (ALF) and City Level Federation (CLF).
• DJAY-S: Deendayal Jan Aajeevika-Shehari pilot, from 1 October 2024 in 25 select cities; outlay Rs 180 crore; six vulnerable occupational groups.
• Proposed: Deendayal Jan Aajeevika Yojana on urban poverty alleviation (MoHUA, December 2024).
• PM SVANidhi: launched June 2020 for street vendors; restructured August 2025, lending period to March 2030.
• PMAY-U 2.0: from 1 September 2024, for 1 crore additional eligible beneficiaries.
• DAY-NRLM (rural): 92 lakh SHGs covering 10.05 crore rural women (PIB, 24 July 2026).
• Federal position (MoHUA): urban poverty alleviation is a State subject; the Centre supplements.

⚠️ Watch the trap: DAY-NULM’s implementation period ended on 30 September 2024, not in October 2024. DAY-NULM (urban) and DAY-NRLM (rural) are different missions; the rural one is still reporting progress. The Deendayal Jan Aajeevika Yojana is a proposal, not a launched mission; DJAY-S was a pilot in 25 cities. The figure of 10,02,545 SHGs is a cumulative count of groups formed, not of groups active today. PM SVANidhi serves street vendors, not SHGs.

The Debate

How to Think About This

When a scheme ends, ask three questions in order. What ended, and when? Use the government’s own date, not a paraphrase: the ministry wrote that the implementation period ended on 30.09.2024. What replaced it? Sort the answer into what is in force, what is a pilot, and what is only proposed. Who is responsible? Here the ministry’s own answer is that urban poverty alleviation is a State subject, which is why the paper presses both the Centre and the States.

For GS2, this is a ready example of a gap between a scheme’s end and its successor, and of how the Centre and the States share a welfare responsibility. For GS1, connect it to women’s organisations and urban poverty: the paper’s best line is that SHGs are institutions, not just accounts, “through which women acquire skills, networks, and a greater say in households and communities.”

Diagram-in-Words

Takeaway Box

• What ended: DAY-NULM, the urban livelihoods mission, whose implementation period ended on 30 September 2024.
• What it built: 10,02,545 SHGs by that date; over 1 crore urban poor women mobilised into SHGs and federations.
• What followed: a pilot (DJAY-S) in 25 cities from 1 October 2024, and a proposed Deendayal Jan Aajeevika Yojana.
• The paper’s case: the lapse is “injudicious and perplexing”; the concern cuts across party lines; States must also do their part.
• The way forward: invest in human resources, infrastructure, credit linkages and market networks, not just in SHG numbers.

Revision Flowchart

Sources: The Indian Express, editorial, “Livelihood scheme for women deserves better”; PIB, MoHUA Lok Sabha reply on DAY-NULM, DJAY-S, PM SVANidhi and PMAY-U; PIB, DAY-NULM; PIB, DAY-NULM physical progress; PIB document, MoHUA, December 2024; PIB, DAY-NRLM

Source: DAY-NULM Lapse: Livelihood Scheme for Women Deserves Better — Ujiyari.com | Free UPSC & State PCS Editorial Analysis