|
|
|
|
List of beneficiaries |
List of SHGs | Photo Gallery | Success Stories | Contact Us | Feedback |
|
Introduction: Notwithstanding the
impressive progress that has been made by the country on different fronts,
poverty continues to be a matter of serious concern. The effect of large
percentage of the poor on the country’s development is obvious. The
situation needs to be redressed quickly. It is in this context that the
self-employment programmes acquire significance. Swarnjayanti Gram Swarozgar
Yojana (SGSY) is the single self-employment programme for the rural poor.
Launched on April 1, 1999 the programme replaces the earlier self-employment
and allied programmes – IRDP, TRYSEM, DWCRA, SITRA, GKY and MWS, which are
no longer in operation. SGSY is an innovative and carefully thought-out
Yojana. It takes into account all the strengths and weaknesses of the
earlier self-employment programmes. It offers the perfect balance of credit
and subsidy. Swarnjayanti Gram Swarozgar
Yojana aims at establishing a large number of micro-enterprises in the rural
areas, building upon the potential of the rural poor. It is rooted in the
belief that the rural poor in India have competencies and given the right
support can be successful producers of valuable goods/services. Persons
assisted under this programme will be known as Swarozgaris and not
beneficiaries. A significant aspect of SGSY is that every family assisted
under this programme will be brought above the poverty line in three years
and therefore the programme aims at creating substantial additional incomes
for the rural poor. Subject to availability of funds, it is proposed to
cover 30% of the rural poor in each block in the next five years. SGSY lays emphasis on
activity clusters. "2"-5 key activities will be identified for each block
based on the resources, occupational skills of the people and availability
of markets. Selection of key activities will be with the approval of the
Panchayat Samitis at the block level and the District Rural Development
Agency (DRDA)/Zila Parishad(ZP) at the district level. The activities will
be taken up in suitable clusters to enable extension of appropriate
facilities. Care would be taken to involve as many panchayats as possible in
covering the key activities. The major share of SGSY assistance will be in
activity clusters. SGSY will adopt a project approach for each key activity.
The existing infrastructure for the cluster of activities will be reviewed
and critical gaps will be filled under SGSY. SGSY focuses on Group
approach. This would involve organisation of the poor into self-help groups
(SHGs) and their capacity building. Efforts would be made to involve women
members in each SHG. Group activity will be given preference and
progressively majority of the funding will be for self-help groups. In each
Panchayat Samiti, at least half of the groups will be exclusively women
groups. The Gram Sabha will
authenticate the list of families below the poverty line identified in the
BPL census. Identification of individual swarozgaris will be made through a
participatory process. SGSY is a
credit-cum-subsidy programme. Credit will be the critical component in SGSY,
subsidy being only an enabling element. Accordingly, SGSY envisages a
greater involvement of the banks, in the planning and preparation of
projects, identification of activity clusters, infrastructure planning as
well as capacity building and choice of activity of the SHGs, selection of
individual Swarozgaris, pre-credit activities and post-credit monitoring
including loan recovery. SGSY seeks to promote
multiple credit rather than a one-time credit ‘injection’. The credit
requirement of the Swarozgaris will be carefully assessed and they will be
encouraged to increase their credit intake over the years. Subsidy under Swarnjayanti
Gram Swarozgar Yojana would be uniform at 30% of the project cost subject to
a ceiling of Rs. 7,500 (for SCs/STs it would be 50% and Rs.10,000
respectively). For self-help groups, subsidy would be 50% of the project
cost subject to a ceiling of 1.25 lakh. There will be no limit on the
subsidy for irrigation projects. Special emphasis will be
laid on skill development of the Swarozgaris through well-designed training
courses tailored to the activities selected and to the requirements of each
Swarozgari. Closer attention to
technology and marketing needs of the swarozgaris would be the hallmark of
SGSY. Technology intervention will seek to add value to the local resources,
including processing of the locally available material from natural and
other resources for local and non-local market. SGSY will provide for
promotion of marketing of the goods produced by the SGSY Swarozgaris. This
would involve market intelligence, development of markets, consultancy
services as well as institutional arrangements for marketing of the goods
including exports. SGSY takes into account the
role of every participant – the panchayats, gram sabhas, banks financial
institutions, NGOs as well as the technical institutions in the district.
Care has been taken to involve them right from the conceptualisation stage
so that they work as a team for the success of the programme. In order to facilitate poverty reduction efforts requiring coordinated action by different departments, pioneering projects, etc., SGSY has a provision for special projects which will be sanctioned by the Ministry of Rural Development. Funding Pattern
|
