Integrated Rural Development Programme
| Swarnajayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana | |
|---|---|
| Country | India |
| Prime Minister(s) | Atal Bihari Vajpayee |
| Ministry | MoRD |
| Launched | 1 April 1999 |
Swarnajayanti Gram Swarojgar Yojana (SGSY) is an initiative launched by the Government of India to provide sustainable income to poorest of the poor people living in rural & urban areas of the country. The scheme was launched on April 1, 1999.
The SGSY(Swarnajayanti Gram Swarojgar Yojana) aims at providing self-employment to villagers through the establishment of self-help groups. Activity clusters are established based on the aptitude and skill of the people which are nurtured to their maximum potential. Funds are provided by NGOs, banks and financial institutions.
Since its inception, over 2.25 million Self-help groups have been established with an investment of ₹14,403 crore (US$2.2 billion), profiting over 6.697 million people.
The Swarnajayanti Gram Swarojgar Yojana (SGSY) was launched as an integrated programme for self-employment of the rural poor with effect from April 1, 1999.
The SGSY was somewhat intended to provide self-employment to millions of villagers. Poor families living below the poverty line were organised into Self-help groups (SHG)s established with a mixture of government subsidy and credit from investment banks. The main aim of these SHGs was to bring these poor families above the poverty line and concentrate on income generation through combined effort. The scheme recommended the establishment of activity clusters or clusters of villagers grouped together based on their skills and abilities. Each of these activity clusters worked on a specific activity chosen based on the aptitude and skill of the people, availability of resources and market potentiality.
The SHGs are aided, supported and trained by NGOs, CBOs, individuals, banks and self-help promoting institutions. Government-run District Level Development Agencies (DRDA) and the respective State governments also provided training and financial aid. The programme focuses on establishing microenterprises in rural areas.
The SHGs created may have a varying number of members based on the terrain and physical abilities of the members. It goes through three stages of creation:
The SHGs are usually created by selecting individuals from the Below poverty-line (BPL) list provided by the Gram sabha. The SHGs are divided into various blocks and each of these blocks concentrated on 4-5 key activities. The SGSY is mainly run through government-run DRDAs with support from local private institutions, banks and Panchayati raj institutions.
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