As the saying goes, “Feed a man a fish, and he is not hungry for a day; teach a man to fish and he’ll not be hungry his whole life.” Over the years, governments have tried offering financial assistance to the poor in rural and urban areas. In order to offer opportunities to the people of India to earn their own livelihood, the Central government has launched the Swarnajayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana or the SGSY.
About the Swarnajayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana
The main aim of the scheme is to provide self-employment opportunities through the establishment of Self Help Groups or SHGs. Under the implementation of the rural employment scheme, the government will establish several activity clusters on the basis of the aptitude and the skill of the people, NGOs, Panchayat Raj institutions, District Rural Development agencies, various technical institutions, banks and other financial institutions will provide funds.
Objective of the scheme
These are the objectives behind the establishment of the scheme
- The main aim is to alleviate poverty in rural and even in urban areas by setting up a large number of micro-enterprises in rural and few urban areas across the nation.
- An overall capitalisation of group lending.
- A programme of micro-enterprises which covers every aspect of self-employment including the organisation of rural poor into Self-Help groups.
- The integration of several agencies set up to help the poor in rural areas.
- To provide a mix of income-generating assets like Bank credits plus government subsidies.
Benefits offered by the scheme
The scheme can provide the following benefits to the poor people of the rural and urban areas:
- Skill up-gradation
- Activity clusters, self-help groups
- Revolving funds
- Lending norms
- Assistance to IRDS borrowers
- Insurance covers to help them lead a worry-free life
- Risk fund for consumption credit
- At least five years duration of repayment of the loan
- Prompt recovery of loans
- Deputation of Bank officials to the DRDA
- Service area approach
- Submission of Data and Annual Credit plan
- LBR returns
These benefits, along with many more, are crucial when it comes to offering the rural people an avenue to reach out for better opportunities in life. Poverty often is a vicious circle and the implementation of these benefits enable the people to have a shot at a better future.
In conclusion
For the longest time, people of the country have looked at alleviating poverty by offering money, and that is what most schemes are designed around. With this fresh new approach of offering people a job, and giving them a chance to build a resume of their own, people can now look to increase their income and make ends meet with much more ease.
Through the implementation of the scheme, the central government aims to also empower the poor and allow them to contribute to the Make in India initiative – a nationwide scheme that enables startups to develop and have international outreach while also contributing to the national economy.
This scheme is the equivalent of the “teach a man to fish” part of the saying that is so well known.