The Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs, Hardeep Singh Puri has said that Street Vendors have been an essential part of India’s economic growth story with linkages with the formal economy and play a significant role in reducing cost of living, by providing goods and services at affordable rates.
He was addressing the Media Persons after launching SVANidhi Mahotsav – a cultural festival for celebrating the success of PM SVANidhi Scheme and SVANidhi Mahotsav website, here today. The Secretary, MoHUA, Manoj Joshi, the Additional Secretary, MoHUA, Sanjay Kumar and other dignitaries were present on the occasion.
Shri Puri said that MoHUA is organising ‘SVANidhi Mahotsav’ – a cultural festival for celebrating the success of PM SVANidhi Scheme and the beneficiary street vendors & their families, from 09 July to 31 July, 2022 in 75 cities across 33 States/UTs of the country.
He further said that SVANidhi Mahotsav is a festival for celebrating and recognizing beneficiary street vendor’s growth story and their contribution towards Indian economy. The festival aims to celebrate 75 years of India’s independence with these nano-entrepreneurs, honoring their journey under PM SVANidhi scheme for demonstrating credit discipline, digital behavior and displaying their astute business acumen, he added.
Puri said that the PM SVANidhi scheme was launched on June 1, 2020 to facilitate working capital loans to the street vendors to help them restart their businesses which were adversely impacted due to the lockdowns imposed during COVID-19 pandemic.
He further said that this scheme is the first comprehensive effort for financial inclusion of the street vendors. Prior to this Scheme, street vendors were dependent on the informal credit channels paying high rates of interest, he added.Saying that 53.7 lakh eligible applications have been received so far under the scheme, the Minister said that out of these, 36.6 lakh loans have been sanctioned and 33.2 lakh loans have been disbursed.
The amount disbursed so far is ₹3,592 Cr and about 12 lakh street vendors have repaid their first loan.Shri Puri said that the event will engage the street vendors & families in the esteemed presence of dignitaries and other stakeholders. He welcomed the street vendors of the nation to be a part of SVANidhi Mahotsav.