The development objective of the North East Rural Livelihoods Project for India is to improve rural livelihoods, especially that of women, unemployed youths and the most disadvantaged, in the participating North Eastern States. There are four components to the project. The first component is social empowerment. The objective of this component is to empower the rural communities, create sustainable institutions so that they manage common activities around microfinance, livelihoods and natural resource management.