Coronavirus lockdown: Only 5,500 of 50 lakh street vendors get central aid

Over two months after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a Rs 5,000-crore loan facility for street vendors hit by the Covid-19 lockdown, only 5,500 of them (0.11% of the total 50 lakh) have received the aid.

Experts have, however, cast doubts on the government’s proposed number itself, saying it is administratively not feasible to count how many vendors are earning their livelihood in which part of the country.

Read: Prime Minister Narendra Modi reviews micro credit scheme for street vendors

The implementation of the scheme — which was announced by the prime minister in his address to the nation on May 12 as part of the Rs 20 lakh crore stimulus for economy to help fight the pandemic — was reviewed late last week. It was found that the government approved 64,000 applications of the over 2.5 lakh it has received till date. Out of that, a little over 5,500 loans have been disbursed.

“The whole idea of easy access of credit to street vendors is that the help reaches them on time. The Centre needs to speed up the process. But it is difficult in the absence of data related to such self-employed people,” said a former government official, who did not wish to be named.

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That is the reason why many economists have suggested that the government seriously think about a universal basic income (UBI), he said.

The scheme, which was proposed in the Economic Survey of 2016-17 by the Modi government’s first economic advisor Arvind Subramanian, entails an unconditional fixed amount to every citizen in the country. Supporters of the scheme include Nobel laureates Peter Diamond and Christopher Pissarides.

Tech wizards like Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk, too, have recommended such a scheme which helps a large number of poor.

Also Read: Coronavirus Lockdown: Why Rs 5,000 crore credit facility for street vendors may fall short

Countries like Kenya, Brazil, Finland and Switzerland have been implementing the scheme on a pilot basis.

Last week, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) calculated the monthly cost of a temporary basic income scheme for 132 developing countries. It said the governments would need $199 billion a month to provide a guaranteed basic income to 2.7 billion people living below or just above the poverty line in 132 developing countries.