Following the announcement made for MSMEs, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a slews of measures targeted at farmers and migrant workers as part of the Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan on Thursday. Here is a look at them.
Support to Farmers
- 3 crore farmers to be given the benefit of 3 months loan moratorium, worth ₹22 lakh crore
- Interest Subvention and Prompt Repayment Incentive on crop loans deferred till May 31st, 2020
- 25 lakh new Kisan Credit Cards to be sanctioned with loans worth ₹25,000 crores
- Refinancing ₹29,500 crores provided by NABARD to cooperative banks and RRBs in March 2020
- ₹4200 crores for Rural Infrastructure Development Fund to states
- Working capital limit of Rs. 6,700 crore sanctioned for procurement of agriculture produce to State Government entities since March, 2020
Support for Migrants and Urban Poor
- States have been permitted to use State Disaster Response Fund to build shelters for migrant workers and provide them with food and water
- ₹11002 crores released by Centre to augment funds for SDRF
- Disbursal of Revolving Fund (RF) to Self Help Groups was on-boarded on PAiSA Portal in April 2020 on a pilot basis in Gujarat and is now being rolled out across all the States in May 2020
- 3 crore masks and 1.2 lakh litres of sanitizers have been produced giving employment opportunities to urban poor
- 3 meals a day are provided for residents of shelters for urban homeless
- 7200 new SHGs have been formed from March 15, 2020
- NREGA support to returning migrants – work offered to 2.33 Crore wage seekers yesterday in 1.87 Lac Gram Panchayats
- Portability of welfare benefits
- Definition of inter-state migrant worker changed to include those employed directly under the employer, workers directly coming to destination State of their own besides the migrant workers employed through a contractor
- Affordable rental housing complexes for migrant workers and urban poor
Support for Workers
- Universalization of right of minimum wages, presently it is applicable only to 30% workers
- Appointment letter for all workers – move towards formalization
- Statutory concept of National Floor Wage introduced, will reduce regional disparity in minimum wages
- Less number of rates of minimum wages and better compliance
- Annual health checkup for employees
- Occupational Hazard and Safety code applicable to establishments engaged in work of hazardous nature even with threshold of less than 10 workers
- ESIC coverage to be extended to all districts across India
- Social Security Schemes for gig workers, platform workers and unorganized workers
- Provision of gratuity on completion of one year service as against 5 years
- Re-skilling fund introduced for retrenched employees
Support to Poor (including Migrants and Farmers)
- 5 kg of grains per person and 1 kg Chana per family per month for two months to those who are neither have NFSA or State Card, set to benefit 8 crore migrants, cost to be fully borne by Government of India
- One Nation One Ration Card – Technology Systems to be used enabling Migrants to access Public Distribution System (Ration) from any Fair Price Shop in India by March 2021
Other Measures
- ₹1500 crores Interest Subvention for MUDRA-Shishu Loans, set to benefit small traders and businesses
- ₹5000 crores Special Credit Facility for Street Vendors, set to benefit 50 lakh street vendors
- ₹70,000 crore boost to housing sector and middle income group through extension of CLSS, 2.5 lakh middle income families to benefit
- CAMPA funds worth ₹6000 crores for employment push, afforestation and other plantation works
- ₹30,000 crores Additional Emergency Working Capital Funding for farmers through NABARD, over and above ₹90,000 crore to be provided by NABARD through the normal refinance route, set to benefit 3 crore farmers
- ₹2 lakh crore concessional credit boost to 2.5 crore farmers through Kisan Credit Cards, will include fishermen and animal husbandry farmers, 2.5 crore farmers to benefit