PM Svanidhi scheme for street vendors in India: goals and challenges

During the whole course of the untimely and life threatening global pandemic, one of the economically worst hit sections of the society were the self-employed street vendors of India. Ever since a complete lockdown happened during the first wave in March 2020, the street vendors felt lost, without much savings and underequipped to survive in the city due the sudden transition. This led to many of them to return to their village homes after losing hope. During June 2020, the PM and MOHUA initiated PM SVANidhi (Prime Minister Street Vendor's Atmanirbhar Nidhi) scheme which is a one of a kind micro credit scheme for street vendors to bolster the vendors financially and save their livelihoods in the city. After almost an year into the scheme, this paper attempts to overview the overall goals and the challenges the government has to and are facing during the implementation of this scheme nationwide. The ultimate goal of the governmental scheme focuses on the economic upliftment of the urban informal vendors in the long run and making them a part of the formal economy. Biggest challenge would be the cooperation with formal banks and minimising the digital divide in due time for the scheme to make a long lasting impact and change.