Nearly 50 lakh street vendors identified across India for PM SVANidhi scheme

Feb 03,2022

Around 49.48 lakh street vendors have been identified in the country so far as being eligible for benefits under the PM Street Vendor's Atma Nirbhar Nidhi Scheme, Union Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri told Lok Sabha in a written reply on Thursday.

As per the scheme, shortened to PM SVANidhi, the vendors may avail a working capital loan of up to Rs 10,000 followed by loans of Rs 20,000 and Rs 50,000 in the second and third tranches respectively, on repayment of earlier tranche or tranches. The loan amount is directly released to beneficiaries by the lending institutions, the minister added.

As per the minister's reply, Uttar Pradesh has the maximum at 8.49 lakh, followed by Madhya Pradesh at 7.04 lakh. Maharashtra and Telangana have identified 5.84 lakh and 5.02 lakh street vendors, respectively, while Delhi has only 72,457 street vendors, the government said.

According to the ministry's reply, no street vendor has been identified in Sikkim. In Puri said that for socio-economic upliftment of street vendors, the MoHUA launched 'SVANidhi se Samriddhi' in 125 urban local bodies on January 4, 2021.

He said that it aims to link PM SVANidhi Scheme beneficiaries and their family members to select central government welfare schemes. The ministry said that a total of 49,48,614 street vendors have been identified by the states and Union territories in the country.

Gujarat and Tamil Nadu have 3,21,406 and 3,09,449 street vendors, respectively. West Bengal has identified 673 street vendors in the state. There are 2,56,926 street vendors in Andhra Pradesh, while Karnataka has identified 2,65,477 such people. Bihar has 1,965 street vendors.