PM SVANidhi — A Livelihood Scheme for Street Vendors in India: An Evaluation

By : Animesh Pareek, V N Alok

Page No: 26-43

Abstract
In India, there are about ten million street vendors accounting for 14 per cent of the total urban informal employment. For them, a central sector scheme titled “PM Street Vendors’ AatmNirbhar Nidhi” (PM SVANidhi) was launched in June 2020 by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA). This became necessary particularly during the medical emergency due to Covid-19. Initially, Rs. fifty billion was earmarked as a stimulus package for nearly five million vendors which means Rs. ten thousand were given as collateral-free loan at concessional rate for a period of one year. Due to high demand of these, special micro-credit facility to street vendors has been extended in the second and third year till December 2024. A third loan of up to Rs. Fifty thousand was also introduced in addition to the first two loans of rupees ten and twenty thousand. The paper examines the scheme, state-wise, based on the data available on PM SVANidhi dashboard. There are some gaps in implementation of the scheme like creation of non-performing assets (NPAs) as the loans are collateral free and need to be rectified.

Authors :
Animesh Pareek : Consultant, Indian Institute of Public Administration, New Delhi.
V N Alok : Professor, Indian Institute of Public Administration, New Delhi.
 

DOI: https://doi.org/10.32381/NL.2024.56.01.3