Studying India’s livelihoods program and rural transformation
Building on our collaboration with the Ministry of Rural Development, Gates Foundation and World Bank, 3ie is completing the next phase of evaluation, in partnership with Vrutti, to understand the impacts of India's Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Rural Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NRLM), a flagship program aimed at livelihood promotion and women's empowerment in rural India. As it completes 15 years in 2026, the policy learning from our second evaluation will play a key role in shaping the program’s future direction and strategic priorities.
DAY-NRLM built human and social capital by developing leaders—community resource persons (CRPs) and community paraprofessionals—to promote livelihoods. The CRPs are handpicked from SHG networks to uplift their peers and facilitate skill development in critical areas such as agriculture, livestock management and other areas of livelihood promotion. Read this blog to learn how these trusted advisors and resource persons are redefining how rural women contribute to creating pathways for sustainable livelihoods, stronger communities, and inclusive growth
Overview
Between 2019 and 2024, many parts of the country saw the rollout and execution of one of DAY-NRLM's biggest interventions—the National Rural Economic Transformation Project (NRETP). As part of evaluating the overall impacts of DAY-NRLM, 3ie undertook its second study of NRLM, including NRETP, to assess the impact of the interventions on household income, consumption, and measures of women’s empowerment. Keeping our 2019 study sample as the baseline, 3ie’s analysis compared changes in outcomes over a five-year period—2019 and 2024—of early blocks (11 years of program exposure) to late blocks (7 years of exposure), assessing medium-term impacts relative to earlier phases.
The additional NRETP layer was introduced in a relatively narrow geography drawn from 100 districts with the highest amount of social mobilization and group capitalization to scale up existing successful interventions and transform them into larger economic clusters. It created a set of ‘aggregators’, such as ‘producer groups’, to consolidate outputs and access better markets. We identified a set of intensive blocks in which new income and livelihood-enhancing activities have been undertaken since 2018 and a parallel set of non-intensive blocks. We have used a "difference-in-difference" analysis whereby we compared outcomes in ‘treatment’ villages, i.e. villages with NRETP, to ‘control’ villages that did not have it. Our evaluation focuses on the impact of NRETP interventions seeking to provide financial and technical support for skills and enterprises, producer collectives, innovative livelihood methods, digital financial inclusion, among others.
SHG and hosuehold coverage in states
Activities
3ie shares insights with policymakers at the Post-Budget Webinar Series
On 1 March 2025, 3ie’s Dr Anjini Kochar and Neelakshi Mann participated in a Post Budget Webinar on Building Rural Prosperity and Resilience organized by the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare and the Ministry of Rural Development, India. The discussion focused on ensuring an inclusive and sustainable rural development strategy. Drawing on 3ie's research for the Indian Ministry of Rural Development, Dr Kochar spoke about the importance of the National Rural Livelihoods Mission for rural prosperity and resilience in the country. The panel brought together expert stakeholders from the public and private sector, academia, industry and practitioners working on implementation strategies across sectors.
