Street vendors in rural, semi-urban areas to be under PM SVANidhi: Prez

President Droupadi Murmu said on Thursday that the scope of the Prime Minister Street Vendor's AtmaNirbhar Nidhi (PM SVANidhi) scheme will be expanded and street vendors in rural and semi-urban areas will also be brought under its ambit.

PM SVANidhi Scheme, launched by the Modi government in 2020 during the COVID-19 outbreak, is a micro-credit scheme for urban street vendors, which provides collateral-free loans up to Rs 50,000.

Addressing the first joint sitting of Parliament after the constitution of the 18th Lok Sabha, President Murmu said, "The scope of PM SVANidhi will be expanded and street vendors in rural and semi-urban areas will also be brought under its ambit."
 

On December 11 last year, the then Union housing and urban affairs (HUA) Minister Hardeep Singh Puri had informed in Rajya Sabha that loans disbursed to PM SVANidhi beneficiaries stood at Rs 2,039 crore in the 2020-21 fiscal, Rs 1,248 crore in 2021-22, Rs 1,866 crore in 2022-23 and Rs 4,637 crore up to December 5 of the current 2023-24 fiscal, taking the total to Rs 9,790 crore.

As of December 5, 2023, 56,58,744 street vendor beneficiaries have been disbursed loans under this scheme. The minister had informed the Rajya Sabha that the number of beneficiaries is increasing every day.

According to the HUA ministry, the scheme provides loans in three tranches -- first tranche of Rs 10,000, second tranche of Rs 20,000 subject to repayment of the first tranche, and third tranche of Rs 50,000 upon repayment of the second loan.