The Union Ministry of Rural Development is planning to revamp its Swarnjayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana (SGSY) with an outlay of Rs 8,000 crore.
The ministry has also earmarked around Rs 6,000 crore to support the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) for 2008-09, according to a senior ministry official.
The SGSY scheme, which is in force since April 1, 1999, has grown significantly, according to the official. It aims to bring the assisted poor families (swarozgaris) above the poverty line by providing them income-generating assets through a mix of bank credit and governmental subsidy.
From its inception till December 2007, the number of self-help groups (SHGs) formed under the SGSY scheme was 2,741,081, the number of swarozgaris assisted 9,332,572 and through SHGs 5,812,645 and directly to swarozgaris 3,519,927. Total subsidy disbursed was Rs 6,612 crore, while credit disbursed was Rs 13,538 crore and per capita investment (average every year) was Rs 21,832.
The ministry has also revised the budget for 2008-09 for NREGS to Rs 29,000 crore, from the earlier estimate of Rs 19,000 crore.
The NREG Act became operational from February 2, 2006, in 200 districts of the country, and has been extended to 130 more districts in 2007-08. In 2008-09, all the districts are expected to be covered. According to the official, the budget was revised to support the additional districts under the scheme.
Between April and December 2007, 26.7 million households had sought employment through the scheme, while 25.7 million households had been provided employment. The scheme has generated 855 million man-days and 1.2 million works have been taken up. Of this, more than 810,000 are in water conservation, irrigation and flood control.
