Srinagar: Street vendors of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh are among the top beneficiaries of the central ‘PM Street Vendor’s AtmaNirbhar Nidhi (PM SVANidhi)’ scheme.
While Ladakh has reported a success rate of over 94 per cent, the success rate in J&K too is on the higher side.
“Interestingly, the success rate for 1st loan disbursals was much higher in the smaller States and UTs which reported fewer applications. Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Ladakh reported a success rate of above 91% each. Of course, UP topped the list with the highest success rate of 95.22%. Himachal Pradesh- HP, Telangana, Kerala, Mizoram, Goa and Puducherry reported success rates of above 81%. AP, J&K, Meghalaya and MP reported success rates above 74%,” said Venkatesh Nayak of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative.
Nayak made the observations in view of the data obtained by him under The Right to Information Act, 2005 (RTI Act) about PMSVANidhi loans.
The Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs launched the PM SVANidhi scheme to empower street vendors by not only extending loans to them, but also for their holistic development and economic upliftment. The scheme is available to all street vendors who are engaged in vending in urban areas as on or before March 24, 2020.
The RTI reply findings further revealed that the success rate in case of women street vendors too was on the higher side.
“In terms of success rate, 90.72% of the women applicants from UP secured both 1st and 2nd loans. Ladakh’s success rate was 83.33% followed by Meghalaya, HP, J&K, Telangana, Kerala, Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Mizoram accounting for between 70-78% success rate for women street vendors. Punjab recorded the lowest success rate for women applicants (34.14%) followed by West Bengal (37.42%), Bihar (42.84%) Tamil Nadu (43.74%) and Haryana (45.03%) in reverse order,” the findings reveal.
However, the success rate for 2nd loan disbursals was much lower as compared with the success rate for the 1st loan.
“No State or UT reported more than 75% success rate. Meghalaya’s was the highest at 74.60% followed by that of Ladakh (63.98%). In all other States and UTs success rate for 2nd loan disbursals was less than 50%. UP, which had reported a success rate of above 95% for 1st loan disbursals, managed a success rate of less than 4 out of every 10 applications (39.47%) with regard to 2nd loan disbursals,” the findings revealed.