The Pradhan Mantri Street Vendor’s AtmaNirbhar Nidhi (PM SVANidhi) scheme has completed six years of providing affordable credit, digital inclusion and social security support to street vendors across the country, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) said on Sunday.
To mark the occasion, Union Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs Manohar Lal, along with Tripura Chief Minister Manik Saha, interacted with PM SVANidhi beneficiaries from Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Mizoram and Tripura in Agartala. During the event, credit cards and loan sanction letters were distributed to street vendors from Tripura.
Launched in June 2020, PM SVANidhi was introduced to support street vendors affected by the COVID-19 pandemic by providing collateral-free working capital loans and facilitating their integration into the formal financial system.
Addressing beneficiaries, Manohar Lal said Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the scheme with the vision of empowering the urban poor and strengthening the livelihoods of street vendors. He said the initiative was aimed not only at providing easy access to credit but also at ensuring dignity, confidence and financial security for vendors.
Highlighting the scheme’s achievements, the minister said more than 75.5 lakh street vendors have benefited from PM SVANidhi over the past six years. He added that over 1.12 crore collateral-free loans have been sanctioned, while more than ₹17,800 crore has been disbursed to beneficiaries across the country.
The minister noted that PM SVANidhi has played a major role in promoting financial inclusion by connecting lakhs of street vendors to the banking system for the first time and bringing them into the formal economy.
In the North-East, over 2.59 lakh loans worth more than ₹430 crore have been disbursed under the scheme. In Tripura alone, more than 9,300 loans have been sanctioned, with nearly ₹15 crore released to beneficiaries.
According to the ministry, the scheme has delivered wide-ranging socio-economic benefits. More than 34.81 lakh women street vendors have been supported under PM SVANidhi, while 51.84 lakh loans have been disbursed to women beneficiaries. Around 55 lakh vendors have been digitally onboarded, helping them adopt cashless transactions and access financial services.
The ministry also said that average beneficiary incomes have increased by nearly 20 per cent annually under the scheme, while over 30 per cent of beneficiaries have been able to access additional credit beyond the loans provided through PM SVANidhi.
Under the SVANidhi Se Samriddhi initiative, more than 50 lakh street vendor families have been socio-economically profiled. The scheme has also facilitated over 1.52 crore sanctions under eight central welfare schemes, enabling beneficiaries to access a range of government social security and welfare programmes.
