Street vendors are a very important part of the urban informal economy of India which plays a significant role in the availability of goods and services at affordable rates for door-to-door deliveries. They are known by several names such as hawkers, vendors, faadewala, thelawala, and many more. They generally deal in goods such as eggs apparel, artisan products, stationery, books, vegetables, ready-to-eat street food, and many more. They are also seen providing services such as barbershops and meat shops, laundry services, and cobblers. Due to the covid-19 pandemic and resulting lockdowns, their livelihoods were impacted gravely. The decline India has seen in their lives is devastating.
Objectives of the scheme
- As the scheme is fully funded by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, it will look to facilitate the working capital loan of rupees 10,000 for every applicant.
- To promote digital transactions and incentivize regulatory payments.
- Introduce street vendors to the new world of digital transactions and sales to bring them up to speed and help them move up the economic ladder.
Eligibility criteria
For beneficiaries:-
All state vendors that possess a Certificate of Vending or an identity card issued by the Urban Local Bodies and apply before March 24th of 2020 are eligible.
Several vendors who have not been issued a certificate can also be identified in the survey and will be considered eligible to apply under the scheme.
For States and Union Territories:-
Those who have been notified under the rules and scheme under the Street Vendors’ Protection Of Livelihood and Regulation of the Street Vending Act of 2014 will be eligible. The special case of Meghalaya rises which has it on state Street Vendors Act. I have been given the option to either participate.
Lenders under the scheme
Small finance banks, cooperative banks, non-banking financial companies, scheduled commercial banks, regional rural banks, and microfinance institutions that have been established in states and union territories are considered to be eligible lenders.
Some features to consider
- Union territories and states are responsible to prepare a guiding roadmap to build up capacities of street vendors to conduct E-Commerce and also obtain quality certifications from authorities.
- Promote incentivizing digital transactions through a cashback facility to develop a credit score for vendors. Platforms such as BharatPay, AmazonPay, PhonePay, and Paytm will be used to onboard the street vendors for digital transactions.
- Implementation partners under the scheme include the Small Industrial Development Bank of India in partnership with the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs.
- Street vendors can take up working capital loans up to rupees 10,000 with the tenure of one year and outstanding repayment in monthly installments. No collateral will be taken by the lending institutions and early repayment will qualify the vendor to have an answer limit on the next working capital loan.
This scheme is considered to be well devised to help the much-needed vendors to bring them up to the speed of the fast-moving economy and survive by increasing in sales and profits for Store