Swarna Jayanti Shahari Rojgar Yojana (SJSRY)

The Swarna Jayanti Shahari Rojgar Yojana (SJSRY) is a unified Centrally Sponsored Scheme launched a fresh in lieu of the erstwhile Urban Poverty Alleviation Programmes viz., Nehru Rojgar Yojana (NRY), Prime Minister's Integrated Urban Poverty Eradication Programme (PMIUPEP) and Urban Basic Services for the Poor (UBSP).

Objectives :

• Gainful Employment to Urban Poor, Unemployed and Underemployed.
• Setting up self Employment ventures and provision of wage-employment.
• Community Empowerment through creation of suitable community structures on UBSP pattern.
• Capability Building, Women's Group for small enterprises, Women's Thrift-cum-Credit Societies.

Implementation of SJSRY begins from 1st December 1997 under funding pattern of Centre and State in 75:25 basis. The Scheme envisages in two key components :

1. The Urban Self Employment Programme (USEP), and
2. The Urban Wage Employment Programme (UWEP).

The Urban Self Employment Programme (USEP)

This programme will have three distinct parts :

• Assistance to individual urban poor beneficiaries for setting up gainful self employment ventures.
• Assistance to groups of urban poor women for setting up gainful self employment ventures. This sub-scheme is called "The Scheme for Development of Women and Children in the Urban Areas (DWCUA)".
• Training of beneficiaries, potential beneficiaries and other persons associated with the urban employment programme for up gradation and acquisition of vocational and entrepreneurial skills.

Components :

• Self employment through setting up Micro enterprises and skill development

This programme encourages under employed and unemployed urban youth to set up small enterprises relating to servicing, petty business and manufacturing, for which there is a lot of potential in urban areas. Local skills and local crafts are encouraged for this purpose. To avoid duplication with the ongoing Prime Minister's Rozgar Yojana (PMRY), this component of SJSRY is confined to below poverty line beneficiaries who have got education up to ninth standard with emphasis on those given a higher priority on the basis of the non-economic criteria. The maximum unit cost will be Rs.50,000/- and the maximum allowable subsidy will be 15% of the project cost, subject to a limit o Rs.7,500. The beneficiary is required to contribute 5% of the project cost as margin money.

• Development of Women and Children in Urban Areas (DWCUA)

This Scheme is distinguished by the special incentive extended to urban poor women who decide to set up self employment ventures in a group as opposed to individual effect. Group of urban poor women shall take up an economic activity suited to their skill, training, aptitude, and local conditions. Besides generation on income, this group strategy shall strive to empower the urban poor women by making them independent as also providing a facilitating atmosphere for self-employment.