A central government scheme to provide collateral-free loans to street vendors to restart their businesses has witnessed poor participation fromminority communities, data the government provided in Parliament on Monday shows.

Vendors certified by urban local bodies, or those identified through official surveys, are eligible for the loans under the Prime Minister Street Vendor’s Atma Nirbhar Nidhi (PM SVANidhi) Scheme, launched in June 2020 by the housing and urban affairs ministry.

They first get a loan of Rs 10,000. Those who repay it on time can secure a second loan of Rs 20,000 and, on timely repayment, a third loan of Rs 50,000.

In reply to a question from CPM Rajya Sabha member John Brittas, housing and urban affairs minister Hardeep Singh Puri said that as on March 23 this year, the scheme had disbursed 42.7 lakh loans, amounting to Rs 5,152.37 crore, among 34.47 lakh street vendors.

Of these, 3.98 lakh loans (9.3 per cent) had been disbursed among vendors from minority communities.

Over time, the participation of minority vendors has fallen, from 10.23 per cent in 2020-21 to 9.25 per cent in 2021-22 to 7.76 per cent up to March 23 in 2022-23.

The question and the reply did not go into the number of applicants from minority vendors.

“Albeit the minorities constitute around 20 per cent of the total population of the country, their representation amongst street vendors are reported to be manifold times owing to myriad socio-economic reasons,” Brittas said in a media statement.

“Nonetheless, they are grossly underrepresented in so far as the loans extended under PM SVANidhi Scheme are concerned.”

Data hole on poor

CPI member P. Sandosh Kumar has slammed the government in a media release after the Centre, in answer to his question that sought the percentage of people living below the poverty line (BPL), gave 11-year-old figures.

“While the government and the Prime Minister make tall claims about benefiting the poor all the time, the data they presented in Parliament exposed the reality of all these claims,” the statement said.

“More than a decade has passed, including the nine-year rule of the BJP at the Centre, (but) policy-making, ostensibly for the poor, is going on without any estimation of the number or the situation of the poor people of the country.”

Earlier, in answer to Kumar’s question, junior planning minister Rao Inderjit Singh had told the Rajya Sabha that the erstwhilePlanning Commission had estimated the poverty line based on a consumption-based criterion.

The poverty ratio was estimated to be 27 crore or 21.9 per cent of the then population on the basis of surveys on household consumer expenditure carried out by the National Sample Survey Office in 2011-12.

For 2011-12, the poverty line was represented by a monthly per capita consumption expenditure of Rs 816 in rural areas, and one of Rs 1,000 in urban areas.