Swarnjayanthi Gram Swarozgar Yojana (SGSY)
Introduction
In India particularly after independence, the task of rural development has been prioritised in five year plans. Growing unemployment and the inequality between rich and poor in rural areas, the basic and burning problems of our country, have brought about urgency for development.
Unemployment one of the problems of the country is the root cause of 17 all types of unrest in the country. In India unemployment exists both in rural and urban areas and among educated and uneducated. Educated unemployment constitutes nearly 40 per cent of the rural unemployed. Incidence of unemployment among the educated labour force is 11.8 per cent against 3.8 per cent for educated and uneducated taken together. Further the incidence is much higher namely 26.7 per cent among educated women than 9.81 among educated men. Women constitute 27.1 of the educated unemployed. The unemployment rolls rise with every successive higher level of education. Projections made using alternative techniques put the estimated unemployed at 6-7 million against 52 million labour forces.
Thanks to new employment opportunities that are generated in the economy in recent years as about 45 per cent are going to be educated. But, the growth of educated unemployment still falls short of growth of labour force by about 7 lakh in a year.
On the basis of 8 per cent GDP growth, the Tenth Plan has estimated that additional 29.67 million job opportunities will be created. Consequently enough job opportunities were not created even to take care of the additional labour force of the order of 35.29 million. On record, 5.62 million employment opportunities are yet to be created. As a consequence, the total number of the unemployed increased to 40.47 million. To look for a development strategy (agricultural allied activities, energy production for Bio mass power generation); the composition of a labour intensive production is the solution.
Formation of SGSY Scheme
Poverty reduction in rural areas remains high on the policy agenda of the government as the population below poverty line remains about 27.1 per cent in rural areas according to the Economic Survey 2002-03. Thus, despite a series of efforts made over the past decades, rural poverty in India continues to be significant. The adverse effect of such a large population of poor on the development of the country is quite obvious.
A multi-programme and multi-agency approach was followed to provide assistance to the poor due to their vast number in our country. Too many programmes and lack of adequate co-ordination among various implementing agencies resulted in duplication of efforts and wastage of resources to a considerable extent. The Integrated Rural Development Programme (IRDP) was the first major initiative adopted an integrated approach to provide gainful self-employment opportunities to the rural poor on a large-scale. While this programme lasted up to 1998-99, the other important programmes implemented concurrently include Training of Rural youth for Self Employment (TRYSEM), Development of Women and Children in Rural Areas (DWCRA), Supply of Improved Tools kits to Rural Artisans (SITRA), Ganga Kalyan Yojana (GKY) and Million Well Scheme (MWS). Though these programmes were inter-related with each other and complementary with main programme of IRDP, in actual implementation these were viewed as separate programmes, resulting in lack of social mobilization, absence of appropriate linkages and participatory approaches. Thus, achievements of targets under individual programmes became an overriding concern rather than focusing on the main issue of sustainable income generation by poor households.
Considering the gap between the resources spent and the achievements, Government of India felt that a holistic programme with the participation of poor households and the local communities as central theme is essential for making a real dent in improving the living standards of the poor by creating self-employment opportunities on a larger and sustainable basis. Accordingly, Government of India launched a new programme, “Swarnajayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana (SGSY)” from 01 April 1999.
Importance of SGSY
SGSY is a holistic programme covering all aspects of self-employment such as organization of the poor into self-help groups, training, credit, technology, infrastructure and marketing. It replaces earlier poverty alleviation programmes namely, Integrate Rural Development Programme (IRDP), Training of Rural Youth for Self Employment (TRYSEM), Development of Women and Children in Rural Areas (DWCRA), Supply of Improved Tool Kits to Rural Artisans (SITRA), Ganga Kalyan Yojana (GKY) and Million Wells Scheme (MWS).
SGSY places emphasis on group financing for poverty alleviation by organizing the rural poor into self- help groups (SHGs). Accordingly, the bulk of assistance under SGSY is expected to be provided to SHGs for supporting the group level micro-enterprises or individual enterprises established by their members. Though assistance may also be provided to individual swarozgaris (poor families) outside the SHGs, this component is only secondary and residual in nature.
SGSY seeks to promote self-employment opportunities to rural poor through promotion of micro enterprise in clusters, which would facilitate proper implementation and monitoring of the activities effectively. A few activities in each block are identified (Known as key activities) and the required forward and backward linkages for the development of the activity are provided by concerned agencies so as to enable the swarozgaris to generate sustainable income from the investment.
SGSY came into existence in 1999-2000 duly merging the schemes of Integrated Rural Development Program (IRDP), Training for Rural Youth under Self Employment (TRYSEM) Development of Women & Children in Rural Areas (DWCRA) and Supply of Improved Toolkits to Rural Artisans (SITRA).
The scheme aims to bring every assisted poor family above the poverty line by ensuring appreciably sustainable level of income over a period of time. This objective is to be achieved by organizing the rural poor in to Self Help Groups (SHG) through the process of social mobilization, their training and capacity building, and provision of income generating assets.
A systematic review of SGSY has brought into focus certain shortcomings like vast regional variations in mobilization of rural poor; insufficient capacity building of beneficiaries; insufficient investments for building community institutions; and weak linkages with banks leading to low credit mobilization and low repeat financing. Several states have not been able to fully utilize the funds received under SGSY. Absence of aggregate institutions of the poor, such as the SHG federations, precluded the poor from accessing higher order support services for productivity enhancement, marketing linkage, risk management, etc. Several evaluation studies have shown that SGSY scheme has been relatively successful in alleviating rural poverty wherever systematic mobilization of the poor into SHGs and their capacity building and skill development has been taken up in a process-intensive manner.
In this background, Government has approved the restructuring the SGSY as the National Rural Livelihoods Mission (NRLM), to be implemented in a mission mode across the country.
In the state, the State Rural Livelyhood Mission (SRLM) for implementation of NRLM is the State Poverty Eradication Mission (Kudumbashree)
TARGET GROUP
The target group under SGSY consists of all families below poverty line. At present, the poverty line is defined in terms of per capital consumption expenditure per month in rural areas. The households below the cut-off level of per capital consumption expenditure are classified as ‘Below Poverty Line’ households.
SALIENT FEATURES
1. Six Programmes namely IRDP, TRYSEM, DWCRA, SITRA, GKY and MWS are merged into single holistic programme.
2. Assisted poor households in SGSY are called Swarozgaris.
3. Group approach is adopted for poverty alleviation and poor are organized into SHGs through social mobilization.
4. Swarozgaris are supported for establishment of micro enterprises.
5. Cluster approach is followed for establishing micro enterprises.
6. Key activities in each block to be identified based on local resources and skills of people, which will be supported in the clusters.
7. Project approach to be followed for development of each key activity in a cluster
8. Critical gaps in infrastructure to be funded from ‘SGSY Infrastructure Fund’
9. Subsidy is only an enabling component and major funding to be provided by banks and multiple doses of credit to be provided, where required.
10. Capacity building of swarozgaris to be given high priority including skill development and technology upgardation.
11. Market promotion efforts to be given due importance by concerned agencies
12. Sub-targets for coverage of SC and ST, women and physically disabled persons who constitute vulnerable section of the society.
THE SALIENT FEATURES OF THE SGSY ARE AS FOLLOWS.
1. It aims at establishing a large number of micro-enterprises in the rural areas, building upon the potential of the rural poor.
2. The assisted families (known as Swarozgaris) may be individuals or groups (self-help groups of SHGs). Emphasis is, however, on the group approach.
3. In establishing the micro-enterprises, four- five key activities are to be identified in each block based on the resources of the people, occupational skills of the people and availability of markets. The major share of SGSY assistance will be in activity clusters.
4. SGSY adopts a project approach for each key activity. Project reports are to be prepared in respect of identified key activities. The banks and other financial institutions are closely associated and involved in preparing these project reports, so as to avoid delays in sanctioning of loans and to ensure adequacy of financing.
5. The existing infrastructure for the cluster of activities is reviewed and gaps identified. Critical gaps in investments are made under SGSY subject to a ceiling of 20 per cent (25 per cent in the case of the north-eastern states) of the total programmes allocation for each district. This amount is maintained by the DRDAs as ‘SGSY Infrastructure Fund’ and it can also be utilised to generate additional funding from other sources.
6. SGSY is a credit-cum-subsidy programme. However, credit is the critical component in SGSY, subsidy being only a minor and enabling element. Accordingly, SGSY envisages a greater involvement of the banks.
7. It seeks to promote multiple credits rather than a one-time credit ‘injection’.
8. Emphasis is to be laid on skill development through well-designed training courses.
9. SGSY ensures upgradation of the technology in the identified activity clusters.
10. It provides for promotion of marketing of the goods produced by the SGSY Swarozgaris. This involves provision of market intelligence, development of markets, consultancy services, as well as institutional arrangements for the marketing of the goods including exports.
11. Subsidy under SGSY is uniform at 30 per cent of the project cost, subject to a maximum of Rs 7,500. In respect of SC/ST, however, these are 50 per cent and Rs 10,000 respectively. For groups of Swarozgaris, the subsidy is at 50 per cent of the cost of the scheme, subject to a ceiling of Rs 1.25 lakh. There is no monetary limit on subsidy for irrigation projects. Subsidy will be back ended.
12. SGSY has a special focus on the vulnerable groups among the rural poor. Accordingly, the SC/ ST would account for at least 50 per cent of the Swarozgaris 40 per cent of women and 3 per cent of the disabled.
13. The programme is implemented by the DRDAs through the panchayat samitis. The process of planning, implementation and monitoring integrates the banks and other financial institutions, the PRIs, the NGOs, as well as technical institutions in the district. The DRDAs are being suitably revamped and strengthened.
14. Fifteen per cent of the funds under SGSY are set apart at the national level for projects of far- reaching significance and projects which can also act as indicators of possible alternative strategies to be taken up in conjunction with the other departments or semi-government and international organisations. This includes initiatives to be taken up in the individual districts or across the districts.
15. The Central and state governments share funds under the SGSY in the ratio of 75:25.
16. The Central allocation earmarked for the states is distributed in relation to the incidence of poverty in the states. However, additional parameters like absorption capacity and special requirements will also be taken into consideration during the course of the year.
The government is implementing programmes for poverty alleviation, employment generation and building infrastructure and amenities in rural areas.
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