The Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana–National Rural Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NRLM), under the Ministry of Rural Development, together with PRADAN and State Rural Livelihoods Missions and with support from Axis Bank Foundation, launched a National Compendium titled Strengthening Rural Livelihoods through Convergence: Insights from Practice. The compendium is the outcome of a nationwide write-shop process involving 24 SRLMs and presents 67 curated stories from 19 states that document field experiences of convergence. The narratives show how community institutions and cross-sector partnerships are enabling sustainable livelihood opportunities for rural women.

The release was accompanied by remarks from senior officials who described convergence as central to achieving sustainable outcomes and noted sustained efforts to align ministries, states and programmes despite inherent complexities. Officials underlined the need to strengthen institutional leadership for convergence through emerging platforms such as the rural stack and called for replication of successful state-level models. They also highlighted the importance of strategic investments in Cluster Level Federations (CLFs) as self-sustaining institutions capable of driving local area development.

Officials recalled that DAY-NRLM has mobilised nearly 100 million (mn) women and has facilitated bank linkages amounting to Rs12 trillion (tn). The NRLM 2.0 strategy seeks to scale the Lakhpati Didi model to 60 million (mn) women through intensive grassroots support driven by institutions of the poor supported by professionals. Speakers emphasised that sustainable livelihoods rest on three pillars—programmes, institutions and convergence—and urged treating convergence as a core strategy rather than a conceptual aim.

A structured panel discussion addressed scaling livelihood prototypes and the role of social capital in effective scheme utilisation, while proponents outlined frameworks to expand convergence, including a six point approach covering income diversification, infrastructure and institutional integration. State representatives shared successful convergence models from Jharkhand and Assam and affirmed ongoing efforts to compile field experiences from farm and non-farm interventions. The event concluded with a collective commitment to deepen convergence, scale proven models, strengthen partnerships and enhance monitoring and learning systems to ensure inclusive and sustainable rural livelihoods.