"Swanidhi Yojana brought new happiness in lives of even poorest of poor workers": PM Modi

New Delhi [India], March 8 (ANI): Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday lauded the PM Swanidhi scheme and said that the scheme has brought new happiness in the lives of even the poorest of the poor workers.
The scheme facilitates collateral-free working capital loans up to Rs 10,000 of one-year tenure, to assist around 50 lakh street vendors to resume their businesses.
Incentives in the form of interest subsidy (at 7 per cent per annum) and cashback (up to Rs 1,200 per annum) are being provided to promote good repayment behaviour and digital transactions respectively. The interest subsidy effectively works out to 30 per cent of the entire interest burden for a loan of Rs 10,000 at 24 per cent annual interest.
Sharing stories of women empowerment on the microblogging site X, the Prime Minister said, "PM Swanidhi Yojana has brought new happiness in the lives of even the poorest of the poor workers. A large number of our mothers and sisters are also included in these."
PM Modi also shared a video where a woman named Sushila Bai hailing from Madhya Pradesh shared her experience of how the scheme changed the lives of her children and lauded the scheme for playing an important role in her life.
"I come from a poor family and make baskets from bamboo. This is our ancestral occupation. Earlier there were no government schemes to help us. In the last few years, various government schemes were announced by PM Modi. One such scheme is the PM Swanidhi scheme under which I received a loan of Rs 10,000 to scale up my inherited occupation. With time, this has turned into a business. We also create awareness among those women who have no idea about employment. We want to change the thoughts of people," she said.
Earlier today, Prime Minister Narendra Modi extended greetings on International Women's Day.
He has also saluted the strength, courage, and resilience of Nari Shakti and lauded their accomplishments across various fields.
"Greetings on International Women's Day! We salute the strength, courage, and resilience of our Nari Shakti and laud their accomplishments across various fields. Our government is committed to empowering women through initiatives in education, entrepreneurship, agriculture, technology and more. This is also reflected in our accomplishments in the last decade," PM Modi posted on X.
This year, International Women's Day is celebrated under the theme "Invest in women: Accelerate progress". (ANI)