Journal Press India^®

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Swarna Jayanti Shahari Rozgar Yojana (SJSRY) was introduced by the Indian Government in 1997-98 as an initiative to create self-employment opportunities to alleviate urban poverty. Under this scheme the Central and the State governments share the financial responsibility in the ratio of 75:25 for providing subsidised loans to the self-help groups (SHGs) promoted by local government bodies in urban areas. Various studies conducted on this scheme all over India indicate that due to various lacunae in the implementation of the scheme it has failed to achieve the objective of poverty alleviation through self-employment generation. This study is based on a random sample of SHGs from below poverty line households in Thane city for the implementation of SJSRY. The study shows that SJSRY has not achieved the desired results due to poor implementation. While greater emphasis was laid on the delivery of financial assistance, other vital linkages and support mechanism did not get the desired attention. The scheme can do well if an ecosystem is created by establishing institutional linkages for training, marketing and technical support for the SHGs combined with a fool proof supervisory framework to monitor the scheme.

Keywords

Self-Help Groups, Microfinance, Poverty, Urban, Socioeconomic impact, SJSRY scheme

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