Day after PM announced, Cabinet clears Rs 13,000-crore scheme for crafts people

On Wednesday, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, chaired by the Prime Minister, approved the scheme for a period of five years up to 2027-28 financial year.

The scheme aims to strengthen and nurture the “guru-shishya parampara” (teacher-pupil tradition) or family-based practice of traditional skills by artisans and craftspeople working with their hands and tools, the government said in a statement. The scheme, it stated, also aims to improve the quality and reach of products and services of artisans and craftspeople, as well as to ensure that “Vishwakarmas” (craftspeople) are integrated with the domestic and global value chains.

The scheme covers 18 traditional trades across rural and urban areas and is projected to reach out to 30 lakh artisan families. The trades covered are carpenter, boat-maker, armourer, blacksmith, hammer and toolkit maker, locksmith, goldsmith, potter, sculptor and stone-breaker, cobbler, mason, coir-weaver, toymaker, barber, garland maker, washerman, tailor, and fishing-net maker.

These artisans and craftspeople will be provided recognition through PM Vishwakarma certificate and identity card, and extended a collateral-free credit support of up to Rs 1 lakh (in the first tranche) and Rs 2 lakh (in the second tranche) at a concessional interest rate of 5%, Union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said. Giving details, Vaishnaw said the scheme will also provide artisans help to upgrade their skill-set and give incentives for digital transactions and marketing support.

A stipend of Rs 500 will be provided for skill-training and Rs 1,500 to purchase modern tools, he said. The minister said registration for the scheme can be done at common services centres in villages. While the Centre will fund the scheme, support of state governments will also be needed, Vaishnaw said.

Five lakh families will be covered in the first year and 30 lakh families over five years, he said. “The scheme also aims to ensure that Vishwakarmas are integrated with the domestic and global value chains,” Vaishnaw pointed out.

In his Independence Day address, Modi had mentioned the government’s poverty-alleviation efforts. Due to these, he said, “13.5 crore among the poor have broken free from poverty and entered the new middle class.”

Mentioning various schemes in that respect, he spoke of Rs 50,000 crore provision for street vendors through the PM SVANidhi scheme, and Rs 2.5 lakh crore for farmers through PM Kisan Samman Nidhi.