If we do a retrospective investigation of the trends of the past few years, then we will be able to know that unemployment has become a major hindrance to the socio-economic growth of the country. Every year lakhs of students complete their graduation courses, but there aren’t ample job opportunities available in the market to sustain their livelihood. The government of India is providing various subsidies, government loan schemes for unemployed people to deal with the scenario effectively. These plans are designed mainly for middle-class and lower-class youths so that they get employment avenues or accumulate funds to finance their small entrepreneurial ventures. As we go through, we will discuss the prime initiatives taken by our Indian government to elevate the conditions of the educated yet unemployed mass of the country.
Prime Minister Rozgar Yojna (PMRY)
Among the different government loans and schemes for unemployed people, Prime Minister Rozgar Yojna’s objective is mainly concerned with the educated youths of the rural belts to solve unemployment problems that are on the verge of rising. The educational background requirement is only 8th standard pass with an age group of 18-35 years. People can apply for a loan credit up to INR 5 lakhs for setting their business venture under this scheme.
Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP)
The Government of India launched this credit-linked subsidy programme in the year 2008. This scheme provides scope of self-employment in non- farming micro-enterprise sectors like traditional artistry and handicraft for unemployed youths. This scheme comes under the MSME department and is a merger of the Rural Employment Generation Programme and Prime Minister Rozgar Yojna. Persons above 18 years of age can avail of this scheme backed by an educational qualification of 8th standard pass. The beneficiaries’ contribution will be 10% of the total project cost. Besides, the government will offer an additional 15% subsidy to urban people while 25% subsidy to rural people. The repayment tenure is basically within 3-7 years. A two-week training session will also be given to the beneficiaries.
Agricultural Loan
Apart from the regular sectors, there are certain government loans and schemes for unemployed people in the agrarian belts. Unemployed graduate youth above the age of 22 in the agricultural industry can avail of agricultural loans under this scheme. The government of India has further extended its hands to banks and NBFCs to launch different loan schemes in collaboration for the farming sector. To promote the institutional borrowings among farmers, these financial organizations have relaxed the collateral and securities. To ease this facility Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has eliminated the security for crop loan up to INR 1 lakh; above this, the security will be laid down as per the terms and narratives of the bank.
Secured Loans for Unemployed
Aside from the loans, as mentioned earlier, there are also provisions to procure loans against securities. The potential entrepreneur can guarantee his assets as security to the lending institution. The loan amount sanctioned will be directly equivalent to the worth of the asset.
State Government Schemes for the Unemployed
The state government of Tamil Nadu initiated the New Entrepreneur cum Enterprise Development Scheme (NEEDS), where unemployed youths can avail a loan with a subsidy of 25%. A similar plan for unemployed youths was started by West Bengal state government, where a person can apply for a cash loan of INR 50,000. The details regarding these schemes are available on their official websites.
So, these were some of the loan initiatives started by the Government of India to foster employment provisions in the country.