PM SVANidhi Scheme Successfully Empowers Over 50 Lakh Street Vendors

• 04 Oct 2023

The Prime Minister Street Vendor's AtmaNirbhar Nidhi (PM SVANidhi) scheme, initiated by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA), has recently reached a significant milestone by extending support to more than 50 lakh street vendors across India.

Key Points:

• Empowering Street Vendors: The PM SVANidhi scheme, under the leadership of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, aims to formalize the street vending sector and provide opportunities for upward mobility to street vendors, who play a vital role in the urban informal economy.
• Remarkable Achievements: The collective effort resulted in the disbursement of an impressive 65.75 lakh loans, benefiting more than 50 lakh street vendors with a total value exceeding Rs. 8600 crore.
• Public sector banks played a pivotal role in achieving this milestone by supporting the first-ever micro-credit scheme for the urban poor.
• State Participation: States have actively embraced the scheme, enrolling more than 12 lakh new vendors in the past three months.
• Digital Payments Promotion: PM SVANidhi empowers street vendors through digital payments, with lending institutions/banks and Digital Payment Aggregators (DPAs) offering digital onboarding and training.
• Welfare Schemes for Families: Beyond micro-credits, the scheme establishes a safety net of welfare schemes for the families of street vendors.
• About PM SVANidhi Scheme: PM SVANidhi, launched on June 1, 2020, is a micro-credit scheme for urban street vendors that provides collateral-free working capital loans up to Rs. 50,000.
• The scheme offers a 7% interest subsidy for regular repayments and cashback incentives for digital transactions, utilizing Aadhaar-based e-KYC and SMS-based notifications for application status updates.
• Lending institutions, including NBFCs/MFIs and DPAs, have partnered to alleviate urban poverty in India.