The Minister for
Social Justice & Empowerment Dr. Satyanarayan Jatiya today
announced two new Schemes for empowerment of Safai Karamcharis.
These are the Micro Credit Finance Scheme for Safai Karamchari/
Scavenger Women and their Daughters and the Interest Free Loan
Scheme to NGOs for promotion of Self Help Groups. Dr. Jatiya announced
the Schemes while inaugurating the First Annual Conference of
the State Channelising Agencies of National Safai Karamcharis
Finance & Development Corporation (NSKFDC) here. He said that
the Schemes have been formulated to reach the most vulnerable
and discriminated groups amongst the downtrodden Safai Karamchari
community. The Minister said that these groups require motivation,
skill development and skill-upgradation and financial support
for breaking away from traditional occupations. Dr. Jatiya said
that the NSKFDC has also decided to enhance the term loan limit
for acquiring vehicles for removal of sanitary waste and garbage
to Rs.10 lakh. He said the lending policy of NSKFDC have also
been revised for Training Schemes and Entrepreneurial Development
Programmes and Education loans. Dr. Jatiya said that making Safai
Karamcharis to change their traditional occupations is a difficult
task. He said that despite the programme for liberation and rehabilitation
of scavengers being in operation for the last thirty years, we
have not been able to totally eradicate manual scavenging work.
Dr. Jatiya said that it is not merely an administrative problem.
We must along with the schemes work for change of social attitude
towards Scavengers and Safai Karamcharis, he added. Praising Andhara
Pradesh and Karnataka governments for their programmes for wiping
out manual scavenging in a mission mode, Dr. Jatiya urged the
state channelising agencies to target areas which have the highest
concentration of scavengers.
The Micro Credit
Finance Scheme is for women safai karamcharis/ scavengers and
their dependent daughters for starting or augmenting any income
gernerating activity to free them from their traditional occupation.
These activities could be in the field of small businesses/trades,
tiny/cottage industry or service activity, artisan activity, agriculture
and allied activities and transport sector. The maximum loan for
an individual would be 25,000/- rupees and five lakh rupees for
an organisation. The NSKFDC would charge 2% interest to the State
channelising agency/NGO which in turn would charge 5% from the
borrower.
The Interest Free
Loan Scheme to NGOs is for promotion of Self Help Groups which
would be required to conduct a souci-economic survey of the village/locality.
The survey would enable the NGO to identify the target groups
of the NSKFDC in villages/ localities needing economic help for
crafts/ businesses of their choice which they want to start or
upgrade.
Earlier addressing
the participants, the Minister of State for Social Justice &
Empowerment Shri S.B. Mookherjee emphasized on the importance
of imparting training and skills for liberation and rehabilitation
of scavengers. Presiding over the function, the Secretary for
Social Justice & Empowerment, Shri C. Gopal Reddy said that
we must endeavour to help scavengers to break from traditional
occupation and come up the social ladder with pride and dignity.
He said that so far six hundred crore rupees have been spent to
rehabilitate 4.8 lakh Safai Karamcharis and 1.6 lakh of them have
been trained.
