RURAL DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT, HARYANA

SWARNJAYANTI GRAM SWAROZGAR YOJANA.

INTRODUCTION

Swarnjayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana

Swarnjayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana (SGSY) was launched on 1st April, 1999 with a holistic view to cover all the aspects of self employment such as organization of the poor into self-help groups, training, credit, technology, infrastructure and marketing. This programme was started after restructuring the erstwhile Integrated Rural Development Programme (IRDP) and its allied programmes namely Training of Rural Youth for Self Employment (TRYSEM), Development of Women and Children in Rural Areas (DWACRA), Supply of Toolkits in Rural Areas (SITRA), Ganga Kalyan Yojana (GKY) and Million Wells Scheme (MWS).

SGSY targets rural families below poverty line (BPL) with the basic objective to bring the assisted families above the poverty line. Within the target population, the programme in particular focuses on the vulnerable groups i.e. scheduled castes, scheduled tribes, women and disabled with the inherent aim to mobilize them into establishing small rural enterprises based on their own potential.

Participatory project approach is a key feature of this programme with special emphasis on development of activity clusters to ensure proper forward and backward linkages. Training of Swarozgaries (those assisted under SGSY) in skill development and group mechanics, market research, product diversification and packaging etc are integral components of the programme.

The objective is accomplished by ensuring an appreciable income enhancement over a period of time by providing bank credit and government subsidy. The Swarozgaries have the option of availing multiple bank credits so as to meet their requirements and in fact are promoted to increase their credit intake over the years. Herein, the credit is the critical component while the subsidy is only a minor enabling element. Thus, SGSY envisages greater involvement of banking institutions. The banks need to be intimately associated with all the aspects like identification of activity clusters, infrastructure planning and capacity building as also the post-credit monitoring.