Pashu Palan Yojana (GSKVN)

What is Pashu Palan Yojana of the Gujarat Safai Kamdar Vikas Nigam?

Pashu Palan Yojana is a self-employment loan scheme of the Gujarat Safai Kamdar Vikas Nigam (GSKVN), a corporation under the Social Justice and Empowerment Department, Government of Gujarat. The scheme lends up to Rs 1,00,000 at 6 per cent interest to a sanitation worker, or a dependant of one, who wants to start animal husbandry as a business or occupation.

The corporation exists for a single constituency: safai kamdars; sanitation workers, and their families. Gujarat Safai Kamdar Vikas Nigam runs a set of schemes aimed at moving these households out of manual sanitation work and into alternative livelihoods, including a direct loan scheme, a housing scheme, a sanitary mart scheme, education loans and scholarships. Pashu Palan Yojana is the animal husbandry line within that set.

Animal husbandry is a deliberate choice of livelihood here. A single milch animal, in a state with a dense village-level dairy co-operative network, gives a household a daily cash flow from milk pouring without needing a shop, a licence or literacy in accounts. Rs 1,00,000 at 6 per cent is enough to buy an animal and carry the first months of feed cost.

Key features

• Loan of up to Rs 1,00,000.
• Interest at 6 per cent.
• Purpose restricted to animal husbandry and related activities.
• Age band of 18 to 50 years on the date of application.
• No income ceiling.
• Priority for applicants who are BPL, widowed, abandoned, or persons with disabilities.
• Available only to an applicant whose family has not previously availed any loan under a corporation or government scheme.
• Online only, on the e-Samaj Kalyan portal.

Who is eligible for the GSKVN Pashu Palan loan?

An applicant qualifies when all of these are true:

• The applicant is a native of Gujarat.
• The applicant is a sanitation worker or a dependant of a sanitation worker, and can produce a certificate to that effect.
• The applicant is between 18 and 50 years of age on the date of application.
• Neither the applicant nor any family member has previously availed a loan under any scheme of this corporation or of the government.
• The applicant intends to start a self-employment venture in animal husbandry or a related activity.
• The applicant has a bank account in their own name.

Priority within the eligible pool goes to applicants who are BPL, widowed, abandoned, or persons with disabilities.

Who cannot apply or are not eligible

• A person who is not a sanitation worker or the dependant of one is not eligible, whatever their economic condition. This is a corporation with a defined constituency, and the sanitation worker certificate is checked.
• A resident of another state cannot apply.
• An applicant under 18 or over 50 on the date of application cannot apply. The upper limit of 50 is firm, because the loan carries a repayment period the corporation expects to fall within working life.
• An applicant whose family has already taken a loan under any corporation or government scheme cannot apply. The rule looks at the family, not only the individual, so a loan drawn by a spouse or a parent blocks the application.
• An applicant who wants the money for a shop, vehicle, or any purpose other than animal husbandry cannot use this scheme. GSKVN's direct loan scheme and sanitary mart scheme cover other trades.
• An applicant who will not or cannot apply online has no alternative route, since the scheme is online only.

What documents are required?

The sanitation worker or dependent certificate is the one document with no substitute. It is issued by the employing local body or the competent authority and states that the person named is a safai kamdar, or is dependent on one. Applicants often start the process without it and then lose weeks obtaining it, so get it first.

How to apply for Pashu Palan Yojana on e-Samaj Kalyan

1. Open the Social Justice and Empowerment Department portal at esamajkalyan.gujarat.gov.in and select "Please Register Here" on the home page.
2. Fill in your personal details exactly as they appear on Aadhaar, create a password and submit the registration form. Verify the details shown and select Confirm. Your User ID and password arrive by SMS or email.
3. Log in from the portal home page using the User ID, password and captcha.
4. Complete your user profile. This is required once, at first login, before any scheme application can be filed.
5. The home page then lists the schemes you are eligible for. Select Pashu Palan Yojana and open its application form.
6. Fill the application form with your personal, residential, income and bank details, and describe the animal husbandry activity you plan to start.
7. Upload the required documents, in particular the sanitation worker certificate, Aadhaar, ration card, residence proof and bank passbook page.
8. Review every entry, agree to the terms, and select "Save Application". Note the application number displayed — it is the only handle you have for tracking.

How to apply if you do not have a computer

1. Go to a Common Service Centre, a Jan Seva Kendra or a cyber cafe with all original documents and their scans. There is no offline form for this scheme, so an assisted online application is the only route.
2. Have the operator register you in your presence with details taken from your Aadhaar card, and note the User ID and password that arrive by SMS on your own mobile number, not the operator's.
3. Collect a printout showing the application number before you leave, and keep the login credentials, because status checks and any later correction need them.

How do I check my application status?

1. Open esamajkalyan.gujarat.gov.in and select "View Application Status".
2. Enter your application number and date of birth.
3. Select "View Status" to see where the file has reached.

If the status shows the application returned for correction, log in, fix the flagged field or re-upload the document concerned, and resubmit. A file left uncorrected simply lapses.

How is the loan disbursed and repaid?

The loan is credited to the bank account in the applicant's own name given in the application, which is why a joint account or an account in a spouse's name causes delay. The 6 per cent interest applies to the sanctioned amount, and the loan is repaid to the corporation in instalments on the schedule set out in the sanction letter.

Two conditions travel with the money. First, the amount may be used only for animal husbandry activities. The corporation's own FAQ says so plainly. Second, the one-loan-per-family rule means drawing this loan closes off other corporation and government loan schemes for the household, so a family planning a larger venture should think about which scheme to use before applying.

Why do GSKVN Pashu Palan applications get rejected?

• Sanitation worker or dependent certificate missing, or issued by an authority the corporation does not accept.
• Age outside the 18 to 50 band on the date of application.
• A prior loan in the family under any corporation or government scheme, which the undertaking is designed to surface.
• Bank account not in the applicant's own name.
• Residence proof that does not establish Gujarat residence.
• Profile incomplete on e-Samaj Kalyan, so the scheme never appears in the applicant's list of eligible schemes.
• Application saved but details unverified, leaving the file stuck at the scrutiny stage.
• Budget exhausted for the year, in which case BPL, widowed, abandoned and disabled applicants are sanctioned first under the priority rule.

Where do I raise a grievance?

• Gujarat Safai Kamdar Vikas Nigam, Gandhinagar, at sje.gujarat.gov.in/gskvn, is the implementing corporation and the first place to take a complaint about a stalled loan file.
• District Social Justice and Empowerment office handles verification of the sanitation worker certificate and other local documents.
• Social Justice and Empowerment Department, Government of Gujarat, at sje.gujarat.gov.in, is the parent department and the escalation point.
• The e-Samaj Kalyan portal carries the officer's remark against a returned or rejected application: read it before escalating, because most refusals are curable document defects.

Applying is free of cost. No agent can arrange a GSKVN sanction, and any demand for money to process a safai kamdar loan file should be reported to the corporation.