Pm Svanidhi and Its Role in Resurrecting the Self-Employed Informal Businesses After the Covid -19 Crisis

Abstract

The present study is based on the awareness and understanding of street vendors towards the Pradhan Mantri Street Vendor’s AtmaNirbhar Nidhi. This scheme was aimed at resurrecting the businesses of street vendors who were drastically affected by the covid-19 related measures i.e., lockdown. The purposive sampling technique was employed for data collection in Hisar city of Haryana state and 100 street vendors were selected randomly. The descriptive statistics results show that the awareness and reach of the PM SVANidhi scheme among street vendors was poor. Only 26 per cent of respondents got the loan under this scheme. Achieving eligibility criteria for availing the credit under this scheme seemed almost impossible. Lack of awareness about the scheme and difficulties in meeting the eligibility conditions, made difficult to the street vendors to avail the scheme. The vendors were harassed by the long process of obtaining the loan. Further remedial measures are required to rebuild self-employed informal businesses sustainably.