Swarnjayanti
Gram Swarozgar Yojana (SGSY) is the single self-employment programme for the
rural poor. Launched on 1st April 1999, the programme replaces the earlier
self- employment and allied programmes—Integrated Rural Development Programme
(IRDP), Training of Rural Youth for Self-Employment (TRYSEM), Development of
Women and Children in Rural Areas (DWCRA), Supply of Improved Tool-Kits to
Rural Artisans (SITRA), Ganga Kalyan Yojana (GKY) and Million Wells Scheme
(MWS), which are no longer in operation.
The Yojana
takes into account all the strengths and weaknesses of earlier self-employment
programmes. It aims at establishing a large number of micro-enterprises in the
rural areas. 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 as such the programme
aims at creating substantial additional incomes for the rural poor. It is
proposed to cover 30 percent of the rural poor in each block in next five
years.
The
programme has been designed to provide proper support and encouragement to tap
the inherent talents and capabilities of the rural poor. It will target at
least 50 percent SCs/STs 40 percent women and 3 percent disabled. It is a
holistic programme of micro enterprises covering all aspects of
self-employment, viz., organization of the rural poor into self-help groups and
their capacity building and planning of activity clusters, infrastructure build
up, technology, credit and marketing.
It lays
emphasis on activity cluster based on the resources, occupational skills of
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.
The major
share of SGSY assistance will be in activity clusters. SGSY will adopt a
project approach for each key activity. SGSY focuses on Group approach. This
would involve organization 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 SHGs, selection of individual
Swarozgaris, pre-credit activities and post-credit monitoring including loan
recovery.
It seeks
to promote multiple- credit rather than a one-time credit ‘injection. The credit
requirement of Swarozgaris will be carefully assessed and they will be
encouraged to increase their credit intake over the years. Subsidy under SGSY
would be uniform at 30 percent of the project cost, subject to a ceiling of
Rs.7, 500 (for SCs/STs, it would be 50 percent and Rs.10, 000 respectively).
For self-help groups, subsidy would be 50 percent of the project cost subject
to a ceiling of Rs.1.25 lakh.
There will
be no limit on the subsidy for irrigation projects. Special emphasis has been
laid on skill development of Swarozgaris. Closer attention to technology and
marketing needs of the Swarozgaris would be the hallmark of SGSY.
The SGSY
will provide for promotion of marketing of the goods produced by the SGSY
Swarozgaris. The central and state governments in the ratio of 75:25 will share
funds under the SGSY. The central allocation earmarked for the states will be
distributed in relation to the incidence of poverty in the states. However,
additional parameters such as absorption capacity and special requirement will
also be taken into consideration during the course of the year.
The SGSY
will be implemented by DRDAs through the Panchayat Samitis. The process of
planning, implementation and monitoring would integrate the banks and other
financial institutions, the PRIs, NGOs as well as technical institutes in the
districts.
No comments:
Post a Comment