Employment Schemes of India

Employment Schemes of India

Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP)

• Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP) has been created by merging two schemes, Prime Minister's Rojgar Yojana (PMRY) and Rural Employment Generation Programme (REGP), which were in operation till 31.03.2008.
• It is a credit linked subsidy programme being implemented by Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises.
• It aims at generating self-employment opportunities through establishment of micro enterprises by organizing traditional artisans and unemployed youth.
• The scheme will be implemented by Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) at the national level and by KVIC directorates, Khadi and Village Industries Board and Districts Industries Centres at the state level.
• The Government subsidy under the scheme will be distributed to the beneficiaries/entrepreuners through identified banks by KVIC.
• Individuals above 18 years of age, Self Help groups, Institutions registered under Societies Registration Act, 1860, Production Co-oerative Societies and Charitable Trusts are eligible for subsidy to set up projects under PMEGP.
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Swarnjayanti Gram Swarojgar Yojana (SGSY)

Swarnjayanti Gram Swarojgar Yojana (SGSY) started on 01.04.1999 is a major on going programme for self employment for the rural poor. The programme was developed after reviewing and restructuring the erstwhile Integrated Rural Development Programme (IRDP) and allied programmes namely

• Training Rural Youth for Self Employment (TRYSEM)
• Development of Women and Children in Rural Areas (DWCRA)
• Supply of Toolkits in Rural Areas (SITRA)
• Ganga Kalyan Yojana (GKY)
• Millions Wells Scheme.

The other programmes are no more in operation with the launching of SGSY. The basic objective of the SGSY is to bring the assisted poor families above the poverty line by providing them income-generating assets through a mix of bank credit and governmental subsidy. The SGSY is being implemented by the District Rural Development Agencies (DRDAs) with the active involvement of Panchayati Raj Institutions, the Banks, the Line Departments and the Non-Government Organisations. The programme is financed on 75 : 25 cost sharing basis between the Centre and the States. The SGSY aims to cover all aspects of rural employment, the chiefly the following

• Social mobilisation i.e. organisation of the poor into Self Help Groups (SHGs)
• Activity Cluster, Planning and Selection i.e identifying and selecting a key activity in terms of its economic viability in an area.
• Financial Assistance in the form of credit and subsidy in which credit is a major component.
• Training of Swarozgaris through well-designed training courses.
• Infrastructure Development
• Marketing and Technology Support 

Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA)

The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, notified in 200 districts in the first phase on Feb 2, 2006 was renamed Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) on 02 Oct 2009. 130 districts were notified in 2007 and with the notification of the remaining districts on 01 April 2008, the entire country has been covered. Exception is given to district with a hundred percent urbanpopulation. The Act seeks to enhance livelihood security in rural areas by providing at least 100 days of guaranteed wage employment in afinancial year.
Salient Features:

• Adult members of a rural household willing to do unskilled manual work are eligible to seek employment under the act.
• Employment is to be given within 15 days of application for work, otherwise daily unemployment allowance has to paid by the respective State.
• Wages are to be paid according to Minimum Wages Act 1948 for agricultural labourers in the State unless otherwise notified by the centre
• Equal wages are to be paid to both men and women.
• At least one-third beneficiaries are to be women.
• No conractors and machinery is allowed.

The MGNERGA is a paradigm shift from previous wage employment programmes, the significant aspects which are given below:

• It provides a statutory guarantee of wage employment.
• It provides a rights-based framework for wage employment.
• The Act provides incentive to the State Govt for providing employment as 90% of the cost is borne by the Centre and at the same time discentive in the form of Unemployment Allowance falls on the State Govt which fails to provide employment within the stipulated time of 15 days of applying for work.

Transparency safeguards are provided in the form of

• Job cards in the custody of workers which monitor entitlements.
• Issue of dated receipts on application for work
• Citizen Information Boards at worksites.
• Vigilance Monitoring Committees.

Hunar se Rozgaar Scheme

Hunar Se Rozgaar Tak is an employment scheme launched by the Tourism Ministry, Govt. of India in 2009 for youth in the 18 - 25 years age group and who are at least 8th pass. These are training programmes to create employable skills in hospitality sector under the Capacity Building Scheme of Ministry of Tourism. Initially the programme was to be conducted by 25 Institutes of Hotel Management and Food Craft Institutes sponsored by the Ministry of Tourism. Subsequently the programme has been allowed to be conducted by certain starred hotels. The programmes is intended to offer short but quality training courses covering i) Food & Beverage Service and ii) Food Production. The programme will target the youth of weaker sections of societies who are interested in joining the hospitality industry and are in need to acquire skills facilitating employment.

Swarna Jayanti Shahari Rozgar Yojana

The Swarna Jayanti Shahari Rojgar Yojana (SJSRY) originally launched in Dec 1997 is a unified Centrally Sponsored Scheme launched a fresh in lieu of the erstwhile Urban Poverty Alleviation Programmes viz., Nehru Rojgar Yojana (NRY), Prime Minister's Integrated Urban Poverty Eradication Programme (PMIUPEP) and Urban Basic Services for the Poor (UBSP).
The SJSRY has been comprehensively revamped with effect from 01.04.2009. The SJSRY has three key objectives namely:

1.  Addressing urban poverty alleviation through gainful employment to the urban unemployed or underemployed poor.

2.  Supporting skill development and training to enable the urban poor have access to employment opportunities provided by the market or undertake self-employment

3.  Empowering the community to tackle the issues of urban poverty through suitable selfmanaged community structures and capacity building programmes.

The scheme is proposed to be implemented through Urban Local Bodies and community structures.
The revamped SJSRY has five major components, namely 

4.  Urban Self Employment Programme (USEP)

5.  Urban Women Self-help Programme (UWSP)

6.  Skill Training for Employment Promotion amongst Urban Poor (STEP-UP)

7.  Urban Wage Employment Programme (UWEP)

8.  Urban Community Development Network (UCDN)

SWALAMBAN

Swalamban Scheme has been launched on 26.09.2010 to encourage the workers of unorganized sector to voluntarily save for their retirement and to lower the cost of operations of the New Pension System (NPS) for such subscribers.
It was announced in the Union Budget 2010-11. It is a co-contributory pension scheme in which the Government of India (GOI) will contribute a sum of Rs. 1,000 to each eligible NPS subscriber who contributes a minimum of Rs. 1,000 and maximum Rs. 12,000 per annum under the Swavalamban Scheme.
The GoI contribution has been announced for the current year and the next three years i.e. upto the year 2013-14. The target of the Government is to cover around 10 lakh subscribers each during the 4 years of the Scheme, totaling to around 40 lakh subscribers.
Workers of unorganized sector from any part of the country can join this Scheme. Implementation of the scheme has been entrusted to the Interim Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA).

SABLA SCHEME 

SABLA scheme is the name for Rajiv Gandhi Scheme for Empowerment of Adolescent Girls [RGSEAG].
It merges the Nutrition Programme for Adolscent Girls (NPAG) and Kishori Shakti Yojana (KSY).
An amount of Rs. 1000 crore has been allocated in budget of 2010-11.
The scheme focuses on improving the nutritional and health status and upgrading various skills like home skills, life skills and vocational skills of adolscent girls of age 11 t 18 years.
It is a Centrally Sponsored Scheme to be implemented through the State Governments/UTs with 100% financial assistance from the Central Government for all inputs, except supplementary nutrition for which Government of India and States would share on 50: 50 basis.
The scheme is proposed to be implemented using the platform of Integrated Child Development Services Scheme and delivered through Anganwadi centres.

National Rural Livelihoods Mission

National Rural Livelihoods Mission (NRLM), a new initiative under the Ministry of Rural Development to bring the poorest of the poor above the poverty line by ensuring viable livelihood opportunities to them was launched in Jun 2011 by the UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi.

The core belief of NRLM

The NRLM is based on the core belief that the poor have innate capabilities and a strong desire to come out of poverty. This intrinsic capability of the poor is unleashed only when they are organized into institutions which are truly owned by them, provided sufficient capacity building and handholding support.

Background of NRLM

The Integrated Rural Development Programme was launched in 1980 by the Government of India to help the people below poverty line. In 1999 the programme was transformed to Swarnajayanti Gram Swarojgar Yojana (SGSY). This programme followed the strategy of generating self employment through organizing poor into Self Help Groups (SHGs). In the last 10 years about 250 lakh rural BPL households have been organized and brought under the SHG network. It may also be noted that 450 lakh households still need to be organized into SHGs and the existing SHGs covering 250 lakhs also need further strengthening and greater financial support. Considering the enormity of the task, the Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD), Government of India (GoI) set up a committee under the Chairmanship of Prof. R. Radhakrishna (Committee on Credit Related Issues under SGSY), which submitted its recommendations in the year 2009. The Ministry after widespread consultations accepted the major recommendation of the Radhakrishna Committee for restructuring the SGSY as National Rural Livelihoods Mission (NRLM). The Ministry’ proposal was approved by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) on 24.6.10.

Purpose of the Mission

The basic purpose of National Rural Livelihoods Mission is to put in place a dedicated and sensitive support structure from the national level to the sub-district level which will focus on the poor, build and sustain their organizations at different levels. This will provide the poor a platform for collective action based on self help and mutual cooperation and they become a strong demand system, build linkages with mainstream institutions, including banks, and Government departments to address the various dimensions of poverty.

The Mission

The Mission aims to ensure that at least one member from each identified rural poor household, preferably a woman, is brought under the Self Help Group (SHG) network in a time bound manner. NRLM would reach out, mobilize and support 7 Crore BPL households across 600 districts, 6000 blocks, 2.5 lakh Gram Panchayats, in 6 lakh villages across the country into their self-managed Self Help Groups (SHGs) and their federal institutions and livelihoods collectives. It would support them financially and institutionally in all their efforts to get them out of poverty. The poor would be helped to achieve increased access to their rights, entitlements and public services, diversified risk and better social indicators of empowerment.

Coverage of Weaker Sections of Society

NRLM has been mandated to ensure adequate coverage of vulnerable sections of the society such that 50% of the beneficiaries are SC/STs, 15% are minorities and 3% are persons with disability, while keeping in view the ultimate target of 100% coverage of BPL families. A unique feature of the new initiative is that it would be led by the poor themselves. NRLM would utilize the services of Community Resource Persons (CRPs) who are women who have themselves come out of poverty through being a part of the Self Help Group. They will spread the concept of NRLM from one village to another and from one district to another making NRLM a people’s movement.
NRLM will focus on women as we believe that the best way of reaching out to the whole family is through the woman. There will be a special focus on vulnerable sections: scheduled tribes, scheduled castes, minorities, women headed families, etc. The second focus of NRLM would be rural youth of the country who are unemployed. They will be supported through placement linked skill development projects through which their skills will be upgraded through short term training courses in sectors which have high demand for services.