Aatmanirbhar Bharat Rojgar Yojana Benefitted Over 60 Lakh Beneficiaries In Pandemic: Labour Minister

The Aatmanirbhar Bharat Rojgar Yojana (ABRY) meant for creating employment during the pandemic benefitted 60.13 lakh beneficiaries, Parliament was informed on Monday. 
    
The ABRY was launched on October 1, 2020, to incentivise employers to create new employment and restore employment lost during the COVID-19 pandemic. 
    
"The terminal date for registration of beneficiaries was March 31, 2022. As on November 28, 2022, benefits have been provided to 60.13 lakh beneficiaries," Minister of State for Labour & Employment Rameshwar Teli said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha. 
    
Employment generation coupled with improving employability is the priority of the government. Accordingly, the government has taken various steps to deal with the problem of unemployment in recent times, Teli told the House. 
    
The government has announced the Aatmanirbhar Bharat package to provide stimulus to businesses and mitigate the adverse impact of COVID-19. 
    
Under this package, the government is providing fiscal stimulus of more than Rs 27 lakh crore. This package comprises various long-term schemes/programmes/ policies for making the country self-reliant and creating employment opportunities, he stated. 
    
The minister also informed the House that Budget 2021-22 launched Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme with an outlay of Rs 1.97 lakh crore for five years starting from 2021-22. 
    
The PLI Scheme being implemented by the government have the potential for creating 60 lakh new jobs, the minister said. 
    
The number of skill-trained candidates placed and beneficiaries assisted in setting up individual/ group micro enterprises under DAY-NULM (Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana - National Urban Livelihoods Mission) during the last three years (2019-20 to 2021-22) are 1,77,687 and 2,88,399, respectively, he added. 
    
The Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana (PMMY) is being implemented by the government for facilitating self-employment. 
    
Under the PMMY, collateral-free loans up to Rs 10 lakh are extended to micro/small business enterprises and individuals to enable them to set up or expand their business activities. 
    
"As on November 25, 2022, 37.75 crore loans amounting to Rs 21.02 lakh crore have been extended to all categories of entrepreneurs in the country, since the inception of the Scheme," the minister noted.
    
The government is implementing Prime Minister Street Vendor's Atma Nirbhar Nidhi (PM SVANidhi) scheme since June 1, 2020, to facilitate a collateral-free working capital loan to street vendors to restart their businesses, which were adversely impacted during the COVID-19 pandemic. 
    
"As on 8th December 2022, 43.66 lakh loans amounting to Rs 4,396.12 crore have been disbursed to 37.95 lakh beneficiaries under the scheme," Teli said.
    
The government is encouraging various projects, involving substantial investment and public expenditure on schemes like Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP), Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) and Pt Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana (DDU-GKY) etc. for employment generation, he added.
    
As per the extent of information received from states/UTs, the number of vacancies notified in employment exchanges during the last three years i.e. 2019 to 2021 was 17.84 lakh, the minister said.
    
Further, he said that vacancies mobilised on the National Career Service (NCS) Portal of the Ministry of Labour & Employment during the last three years i.e. 2019-20 to 2021-22 were 56.07 lakh.