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Swarna Jayanti Gram Swarojgar Yojana : Income Generation Activities

Swarna Jayanti Gram Swarojgar Yojana : Income Generation Activities (DRDA Udham Singh Nagar, Uttarakhand Government) (2001 – 2012)

Introduction:

Swarn Jayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana is a poverty eradication scheme of the Government of India to provide self-employment through small enterprises development. The plan is a combination of the earlier plans run by the Government of India, such as IRDP, TRYSEM, DWKRA, Ganga Kalyan and the Improved Tool Kit Plan.

Selected BPL families in groups of 5-20 are financed for economic activity through Self-help Groups. A self-help Group is a group of marked BPL families, whose numbers can be from 5-20, and which deals in minor savings and mutual transactions.

Objectives:

The objective of the Swarnjayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana (SGSY) is to bring the assisted poor families (Swarozgaries) above the Poverty Line by ensuring appreciable sustained level of income over a period of time. This objective is to be achieved by inter alia organising the rural poor into Self Help Groups (SHGs) through the process of social mobilization, their training and capacity building and provision of income generating assets. The SHG approach helps the poor to build their self-confidence through community action.  Interactions in group meetings and collective decision-making enables them in identification and prioritization of their needs and resources. This process would ultimately lead to the strengthening and socio-economic empowerment of the rural poor as well as improve their collective bargaining power.

Beneficiaries:

Under Swarnjayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana (SGSY), the beneficiaries are known as Swarozgaris.  The Swarozgaris can be either individuals or groups.  SGSY lays emphasis on the group approach, under which the rural poor are organized into Self Help Groups.  In either case, the list of BPL households identified through BPL census, duly approved by the Gram Sabha will form the basis for identification of families for assistance under the SGSY.  The Self Help Groups should also be drawn from the BPL list approved by the Gram Sabha.

Activities:

Compositions of SHG: Generally all members of the Group should belong to families below the poverty. However, if necessary, a maximum of 20%, and in exceptional cases, where essentially required, upto a maximum of 30% of the members in a Group may be from families marginally above the poverty line, living continuously with BPL families and if they are acceptable to BPL members of the Group. The APL members of Group will not be eligible for subsidy under the scheme and shall not become office bearers (Group leader, assistant group leader or treasurer) of the group. The BPL families must actively participate in the management and decision-making, which should not be entirely in the hands of APL families.  In case of disabled persons a group may comprise of persons with diverse disabilities or group may comprise of both disabled and non-disabled persons below the poverty line Group formation, development and strengthening of the groups to evolve into self-managed people’s organization at grassroots level. In our society, members are linked by various common bonds like caste, sub-caste, community, blood relation, place of origin, activity etc.  The facilitators identified these natural groups, which are commonly called ‘Affinity Groups’.     Using the above methodology IMPART comprises 30 groups in Rudrapur and 15 in Gadarpur block of Udham Singh Nagar.

Group Stabilization:

Through thrift and credit activity amongst the members and building their Group Corpus.  The group takes up internal loaning to the members from their Group Corpus. The groups are saving regularly and began to lend to members. This provides the members with opportunities to acquire the skills to prioritize scarce resources, to assess the strength of each member, to time the loans and schedule of repayments and fix interest rates.  The group institutionalizes the need to introduce sanctions for deviant behavior, which could include delay in repayments, arriving late or absenting from meetings etc.

Micro credit, the Group Corpus supplemented with Revolving Fund sanctioned as cash credit limit By the Banks. Micro enterprise development, In the Entrepreneurship Development phase Skill Development Training imparted to the SHGs members to enable them to successfully implement the chosen activity.

Linkage with the Banks:

During the stage of group formation, saving a/c of the SHG have been opened in the local banks preferably in their service area branch.  This has a dual purpose.  The SHG begins to realize the opportunities and also the mode of dealing with the banks.  Likewise, the bankers get to familiarize themselves with the SHGs.

 Grading of the Self-Help Groups:

The formation is about six months or more depending upon the literacy, awareness levels, socio- economic background of the people being organized.  At the end of the formation stage, which may be about six months or more, it is necessary to subject each Self Help Group to a test to assess whether it has evolved into a good group and is ready to go into the next stage of evolution. This is done through a grading exercise. The objective of this exercise is to identify the weaknesses, if any, and help the group to overcome the same through training and capacity building inputs, so as to develop into a good group.

Rs.25,000.00 in the form of government and Bank loan is made available as Revolving Fund to a group after six months of its formation, and upon qualifying the first grading. After the next six months, upon qualifying the second grading, processing for Bank financing of economic activities indicated by the group is facilitated. Under the plan, a group is given Rs.10, 000.00 per member and a maximum of Rs.1.25 lakh. Rs.7500.00 is given to ordinary self-employed for personal self-employment. The self-employed belonging to the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes are given Rs.10, 000.00 per individual. Total 45 SHGs are formed, monitored and mobilized for income generation activities and micro enterprise development in block Gaderpur and Rudrapur block of Udham Singh Nagar district.