Central Government Schemes for Self-Employment

India is a developing country with the second-highest population in the world. The problem of  unemployment is prevalent in the country. To overcome this problem and find new employment opportunities, The Central government of India has implemented several schemes to help overcome the problem and find new employment opportunities.

The Self-Employment Scheme run by the Central government provides financial and educational benefits to its citizens. It motivates them to be self-employed. The Government has introduced many schemes to deal with unemployment, such as the Prime Minister Employment Generation Programme, a Micro-credit scheme for self-help groups. 

Central Government Schemes for Self-Employment

The term “Self-Employment” is a type of employment in which a person or group is employed for them and gets paid from the firm’s profit, instead of working for others. The programmes related to self-employment in India have made many citizens employed and opened new employment opportunities. The Central Government of India runs many schemes to encourage the people towards self-employment throughout the country.  The list of self-employment schemes in India is listed below.

Aspire Scheme

A Scheme for Promotion and Innovation, Rural Industries and Entrepreneurship (ASPIRE) is aimed to make the people of rural areas self-employed by providing financial support from subsidies and loans. The main aim of introducing this scheme is to generate opportunities in rural areas. To build new enterprises in rural areas, the Aspire scheme was introduced by the Government of India in 2015.

Prime Minister Employment Generation Programme

This scheme is introduced by the Khadi and Village industries (KVIC) to produce employment opportunities in the urban and rural areas of the country. Any citizen of India who has crossed the age of minority (18 years) is eligible to get the benefits of this scheme. The Prime Minister Employment Generation Programme is only for the new ideas and not for the established ones.

The maximum cost of a project unit provided by the Central Government under this scheme is Rs. 25 Lakhs for the production sector and Rs. 10 Lakhs for the service sector.

Pradhan Mantri Rozgar Scheme

Pradhan Mantri Rozgar Scheme is the scheme of the Central Government, launched in 1993, which focuses on providing self-employment to the literate youth who do not get any job. This scheme provides loans for unemployed women and youth. With the help of this loan, young India can start their business with Innovative ideas in many sectors.

Under this scheme, the loan amount of up to Rs. 1 Lakhs is offered to the borrower and training of 15 to 20 days is provided. The period of repayment is 3 to 7 years of the loan amount.

Micro-Credit Scheme for Self-Help Groups

Micro-credit scheme for self-help groups is run for the members of self-help groups (SHGs), generally for the ladies who live in the rural areas or the slum section of urban areas. The National Ministry, Development and Finance Corporation, looks out for this scheme. In the micro-credit scheme, as the name suggests, the little or micro amount of Rs. 1 Lakhs to the members of self-help groups with the 7% rate of interest. The period of refund of this loan is three years.

Self-Employment Lending Scheme

The Self-Employment Lending Scheme is run by the National Ministry Development and Finance Corporation (NMDFC) for the minor community to make them self-employed. The maximum value of loan amount sanctioned under this credit line term-2 scheme is Rs. 30 Lakhs, and for credit line term-is Rs. 20 Lakhs. The rate of interest charged on this amount to the minor communities is 3%, and the repayment tenure is five years.

Self-Employment Programme for Urban Poor Scheme

The Self-Employment Programme for Urban Poor Scheme is the programme under the National Urban Livelihoods Mission (NULM). This scheme provides the poor living in Urban areas with financial support. There is no education qualification required to be eligible for this scheme, and any individual or group with a minimum number of members three can apply for it. For the groups, the sanctioned loan amount is up to Rs. 10 Lakh for groups and Rs. 2 Lakh for individuals. The interest rate in this scheme is 7%, and the tenure of refund ranges from 5 to 7 years.         

Pradhan Mantri Mudra Scheme  

Many young innovators do things out of the box. The Central Government introduced the Pradhan Mantri Mudra Scheme to encourage those innovators toward self-employment. This scheme provides the facility of credit to different Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises.

• SHISHU Loan- The loan amount provided in the SHISHU loan has a maximum limit of Rs. 50,000. This loan is provided to set up the new business.
• KISHOR Loan-The loan amount provided in the KISHOR loan ranges from Rs. 50,001 to Rs. 5,00,000. This loan is given to those existing industries which want to purchase the new equipment and raw materials.
• TARUN Loan-The loan amount provided in the TARUN loan ranges from Rs. 5,00,001 to Rs. 10,00,000. It is provided to the enterprises and businesses which are already existing and want to grow at a large scale.                 

Some other important self-employment schemes run by the Central Government are given in the table below:

Conclusion

The issue of unemployment has been a primary issue for the government of India since its independence. There are many educated but unemployed people living in this country. To make them self-employed and provide them with economical support, the Government of India introduced different self-employment schemes such as micro-credit schemes for self-help groups, mudra schemes, rozgar schemes and many more. The government aimed to reduce the unemployment rate with these self-employment schemes of the country.