Benefits of the Prime Minister Street Vendor’s AtmaNirbhar Nidhi (SVANidhi) scheme has been availed by more than 50 lakh street vendors across the country, the ministry of housing and urban affairs (MoHUA) said.

PM SVANidhi

• Street vendors represent a very important constituent of the urban informal economy and play a significant role in ensuring availability of the goods and services at affordable rates at the doorsteps of the city dwellers. 

• The goods supplied by them include vegetables, fruits, ready-to-eat street food, tea, pakodas, breads, eggs, textile, apparel, footwear, artisan products, books/stationery, etc. The services include barber shops, cobblers, pan shops, laundry services, etc. 

• The COVID-19 pandemic and consequent lockdowns adversely impacted the livelihoods of street vendors. They usually work with a small capital base and might have consumed the same during the lockdown.

• MoHUA has been implementing Prime Minister Street Vendors Atmanirbhar Nidhi (PM SVANidhi), a central sector scheme, since June 1, 2020.

• It aims at facilitating collateral-free working capital loans up to Rs 10,000.

• It is a pioneering initiative by the central government aimed at integrating street vendors into the formal economic system and facilitating access to formal channels of credit.

• This collective endeavour resulted in the disbursement of a remarkable 65.75 lakh loans, benefiting over 50 lakh street vendors, with a total value exceeding Rs 8,600 crore.

• The ministry has allocated targets to all states and Union Territories for the identification of beneficiaries and loan disbursement.

• States, in turn, have assigned targets to their cities, with the aim of achieving them by December 31, 2023. 

• Over the past three months, states have successfully onboarded more than 12 lakh new vendors, the highest ever, with many more in the process of enrolment.

• Currently, Madhya Pradesh, Assam, and Gujarat are among the top-performing states, while Ahmedabad, Lucknow, Kanpur, Indore, and Mumbai are the leading cities in the programme’s implementation. 

• Beyond facilitating micro-credits, the PM SVANidhi scheme empowers street vendors through digital payments.

• Promoting digital transactions, participating lending institutions/banks, and digital payment aggregators have offered digital onboarding and training.

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