North East Rural Livelihood Project (NERP), a World Bank aided project implemented by Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (MDoNER), concluded on 30.09.2019. The project provided skill development training, vocational training to unemployed youths and Self Help Groups (SHGs) members for job placement and self-employment in 1,645 villages under 58 development blocks across 11 districts of 4 states of Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura. As per the information available with the Ministry, the major achievements of the project have been as under:

1. It provided training to 10462 boys and girls in various job skills.

(ii) 2,92,889 households were covered through formation of 28,154 Self Help Groups (SHGs) and 1,212 Village Federations, as well as formation of 1599 Community Development Groups (CDG).

3. At the end of the project, 97% of the members of SHGs formed under the project had savings bank accounts with a cumulative savings to the tune of Rs. 60.51 crores. Project had released a Community Investment Fund (CIF) of Rs. 319.15 crores to 28,154 SHGs. A total number of 5,535 SHGs had availed bank linkage with a total sanctioned bank loan amount of Rs. 58.19 crores. The average loan amount per SHG from bank was Rs. 1.02 lakh.

This information was given by the Union Minister of State for Development of North Eastern Region Dr. Sukanta Majumdar in a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha today.

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SB/DP/ARJ