During the pandemic, several entrepreneurs have faced difficult times. This includes merchants and traders, whose entire business model functions primarily on logistics of goods and commodities, and with lockdowns in action, any and every form of movement restriction obstructed influx of income to their houses as well.
Traders and merchants often found themselves nearing bankruptcy on occasions more than one throughout the entire phase of the lockdown, and therefore, the government of India is launching the Pradhan Mantri Laghu Vyapari Mandhan yojana 2021 – a pension scheme designed for retail traders and small shopkeepers who have been drastically and negatively impacted by the lockdown and its after-effects.
About the scheme
The scheme invites retail traders and small shopkeepers to fill in the PM Laghu Vyapari Maan Dhan yojana forms and register to the scheme so that they can avail a pension of ₹3,000 per month.
The benefits of the scheme could be availed by those who are self-employed shop owners and other types of vyaparis or merchants in the age group 18-40 years. They would have to pay a meagre premium to enrol for the scheme and the range of the premium stands between ₹55 to ₹200 depending on the age of the trader or merchant. The payment of premium for the scheme comes with an option of auto-deduction from the bank account.
India as a country reveres its traders and commercial experts. Therefore, bearing their good interests in mind, the government is primarily focused on the betterment of traders who are known to be quite essential for the economic growth of the country.
The implementation of the scheme will ensure the social security of small shop owners whose annual turnover is below ₹1.5 crores. The primary objective of the scheme is to ensure a robust architecture of universal social security in the country.
Online registration for the scheme
- Visit the official website https://maandhan.in/vyapari
- On the homepage, click on the “Click here to apply now” option link to open the page shown here
- Here, people can choose the process of registration either to be “Self Enrollment using Mobile number and OTP” or “CSC VLE using CSC connect”
- For the enrolment, the applicant would have to log in as shown here:
- On entering the mobile number, PM Karam Yogi Mandhan yojana registration page will appear as shown here:
- Once done, a dashboard will open containing the names of schemes
- The applicant has to choose the enrolment option and select the scheme name to open the subscriber enrollment form for the National Pension scheme for traders and self-employed persons
- The applicant would then have to complete the details accurately to avail pension scheme benefits under the PM Karam Yogi mandhaan scheme
Summing it up
Over the year, traders and small shop owners have had it rough for themselves. Lockdowns meant that there was no business for these vendors, which attacked their savings right away, depleting it day by day.
The implementation of this scheme ensures their social welfare now and even in the future.
