Government to survey urban poverty levels among 6 worker groups
The Union government, along with civic bodies, is rolling out a door-to-door survey to get the socio-economic profile of low-income households. They will focus on six specific groups: construction workers, gig workers, waste workers, care workers, domestic workers, and transportation workers. The surveys will kick off on October 1 and will cover 25 cities across India, including Kolkata, Chennai, Vishakhapatnam, Agra, Indore, and Varanasi.
Survey aims to streamline beneficiary mapping for social security schemes
A top official from the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) revealed that once the enumeration and profiling are done, "it will be easy to map beneficiaries with different central and state social security schemes such as government insurance cover to benefit households as a whole." This initiative is part of a pilot project for MoHUA's new urban poverty alleviation program that targets vulnerable groups.
Pilot project to inform new scheme replacing existing DAY-NULM
The pilot project, funded with ₹180 crore and spanning various sectors, will run for three months. The insights gained from this project will be used to develop a new scheme that will replace the existing Deendayal Antyoday Yojana - National Urban Livelihood Mission (DAY-NULM). "At least one city from all states/ UTs except in which elections have been announced have been considered while selecting the cities," the official added.
Pilot project to enhance skilling and micro-credit aspects
The official also mentioned that some skilling and micro-credit features of the current schemes will be boosted as part of this pilot. "The upper limit of loan facility under the self-employment vertical will be increased to ₹4 lakh for individuals, which was ₹2 lakh earlier for micro-entrepreneurs. Along with that, we will facilitate entrepreneurship development training, financial and digital literacy along with supporting market linkages." The group loan ceiling would increase to ₹20 lakh from the existing ₹10 lakh.
Workshop held to discuss pilot program details
On September 23, the ministry held a workshop to discuss this pilot program with officials from these states and cities. Srinivas Katikithala, secretary at MoHUA, emphasized the need for innovative thinking to harness urbanization opportunities for vulnerable groups, including youths, the Hindustan Times reported. However, he did not provide a timeline for the launch of the new mission and stated that finer details are yet to be worked out.
