Let EHM be Nori's category of effective homological mixed motives. In this
paper, we consider the thick abelian subcategory EHM_1 generated by the i-th
relative homology of pairs of varieties for i = 0,1. We show that EHM_1 is
naturally equivalent to the abelian category M_1 of Deligne 1-motives with
torsion; this is our main theorem. Along the way, we obtain several interesting
results. Firstly, we realize M_1 as the universal abelian category obtained,
using Nori's formalism, from the Betti representation of an explicit diagram of
curves. Secondly, we obtain a conceptual proof of a theorem of Vologodsky on
realizations of 1-motives. Thirdly, we verify a conjecture of Deligne on
extensions of 1-motives in the category of mixed realizations for those
extensions that are effective in Nori's sense
