Livelihood Challenges in the State
Rajasthan is the largest Indian State with a geographical area of 342,239 square kilometers. It accounts for 10.4% of the land area of the country and 5.5% of the population. But its share of national GDP at 2.7% (2005-06) clearly shows the impoverished nature of the state and its people.
The burden of providing livelihoods has been disproportionately on the rural sector and especially agriculture and allied sector. Two third of the workforce dependent on agriculture contributes to only one third of the state GDP. Though the agriculture sector’s share of Net State Domestic Product has been declining (as in the rest of the country), but the dominant share of population dependant has not been declining at the same rate.
The state has an estimated labour force of 280 lakh which is growing at about 2.2% per annum. Thus there are about 6 lakh additional persons seeking work per annum. However, the growth rate of employment, which is 1.1% pa, has not kept pace with the rate of increase in population. This has led to riding levels of unemployment. Further, there are about 200 lakh “working poor”, who are employed at a low wage rate or earn inadequately from self-employment.
Creating livelihoods in such a large number requires that the alternative and innovative ideas are experimented time and again. Further there is a need to build capacity of the existing livelihood intervention agencies so as to expand and deepen their services. Convergence with a range of stakeholders is also important. The need to have an umbrella mechanism that could innovate and coordinate all these efforts in a mission mode, gave way to the formation of Rajasthan Mission on Skill and Livelihoods.
Organisational Structure
Under the chairmanship of Honourable Chief Minister, Rajasthan Mission on Skill and Livelihoods was set up in September 2004 to cater to the livelihoods challenge in the state.
For quick processing and regular monitoring of all the proposals, a Project Sanctioning Committee has been constituted under the chairmanship of Deputy Chairman of RMoL. Labour and Employment Department of Government of Rajasthan is the administrative department of this committee.
BASIX- a well known livelihood promotion institution, acts as Mission Technical Assistance Unit (MTAU) to mission. The purpose of having a technical assistance unit outside of the normal structure of government is to confer the mission with fresh perspectives and professional capabilities. The MTAU Unit gets support from UNDP for conceiving, developing, consolidating and piloting effective and viable livelihood strategies.
A Project Steering Committee, comprising of the senior officials of Government of Rajasthan as well as UNDP, keeps tab on all the activities done through UNDP support.
Mission Mandates
The mandates of the mission are:
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