Rise Together Scheme

What is the Rise Together scheme?

Rise Together is a community entrepreneurship scheme of Mission Youth, Jammu and Kashmir, described in its official guidelines as "the Youth initiative to Develop Community Entrepreneurship in J&K". Mission Youth is an initiative of the Government of Jammu and Kashmir, and it runs Rise Together alongside Mumkin, Parvaaz, Tejaswani, the Spurring Entrepreneurship Initiative and the Young Innovators Programme.

Rise Together differs from the rest of the Mission Youth portfolio in one important way: it funds groups, not individuals. The scheme guidelines say the programme is focused on introducing and developing community-oriented entrepreneurship in Jammu and Kashmir by providing strategic and financial assistance to dynamic and motivated youth, so as to generate jobs and income and promote a spirit of social service among young entrepreneurs.

The six objectives set out in the guidelines are to develop community-oriented entrepreneurship in J&K; to integrate a livelihood programme for youth with the socio-economic development of society; to provide handholding and financial assistance for model community-oriented enterprises; to give end-to-end support from production to marketing; to converge resources and expertise across stakeholders; and to introduce the "Rise Together" concept based on an integrated and projectivised growth model.

Which activities does Rise Together fund?

The guidelines list an indicative, expressly non-exhaustive set of activities:

• Mechanised dairy units
• Automated sheep farms
• Departmental stores
• Manufacturing units based on indigenous raw material
• Wayside amenities and facilitation centres in tourist circuits
• Sound and light recreational facilities
• Smart teaching and learning facilities
• Supply and distribution networks for retail food and non-food products
• Commercial training institutes
• Any other activity that promotes self-reliance and inclusive social development

Projects are not chosen at random. Mission Youth identifies the projects to be taken up at the beginning of each financial year on the basis of economic potential and localised facility gaps, and an inter-sectoral expert committee assesses each proposal against those two tests.

Who is eligible for Rise Together, and who is not eligible?

A youth group can be considered if:

• Every member is a domicile of Jammu and Kashmir and is registered with Mission Youth, J&K.
• The group has a minimum of 3 youth members.
• Every member is aged between 18 and 35 years.
• Every member has at least a 12th standard qualification. The CEO, Mission Youth is competent to relax this educational criterion for deserving candidates on a case-to-case basis with proper justification.
• Every member is unemployed, certified as such by the competent authority.
• Character antecedents of every member are certified by the Police.

Preference is given to youth already registered as Self-Help Groups, registered societies or registered trusts.

A group cannot apply or is not eligible if:

• Any member has already availed a benefit under a self-employment or similar government scheme.
• Any member has already taken a loan facility under a government-sponsored scheme; such loans are expressly not eligible under Rise Together.
• Any member is a defaulter to any bank or financial institution.
• Any member is employed in the government, public sector or private sector, in the Centre or any state. The indemnity bond requires a declaration on this, and members who take up such a job later must repay the assistance.
• The group has fewer than 3 members, or any member falls outside the 18-35 age band or below the Class 12 qualification without a sanctioned relaxation.

How much financial assistance does Rise Together provide?

Rise Together assistance is capped at Rs 20 lakh per youth group, covering up to 80 per cent of the project cost based on the project plan and estimates submitted. The break-up in the scheme guidelines is:

Note that the summary published on the Mission Youth Schemes page describes the upfront subsidy as "minimum of Rs 2.5 lakh or 10% of project cost" and the loan as "70% of project cost to the extent of Rs 17.50 lakh". The signed scheme guidelines PDF issued by Mission Youth states 5 per cent for the subsidy and 75 per cent for the loan. Where the two differ, the guidelines document is the operative text: confirm the current percentage with Mission Youth before you build your project cost around it.

Mission Youth also pays part of your EMIs. Under the repayment schedule in the guidelines, Mission Youth contributes towards the EMIs on a tapering scale:

This repayment subsidy is limited to an aggregate of Rs 5 lakh per case, and the subsidy for each subsequent year is released only against documents — a bank statement, income tax statement or a certificate from the District Level Task Force; testifying that the activity is still running sustainably at the end of each year of repayment.

Two further financial rules matter. The bank must insist on the minimum possible collateral security for cases sponsored under the programme, and prepayment or takeover of the loan by another bank or financial institution is not allowed at any point during the agreed loan tenure. The unit and assets created under the scheme have to be insured by the beneficiary group.

How to apply for Rise Together

1. Register your group members with Mission Youth at missionyouth.jk.gov.in. Registration with Mission Youth is a mandatory eligibility condition, not an optional step.
2. Wait for the annual call for proposals. Mission Youth invites proposals from interested youth during the fourth quarter of each year, that is between January and March.
3. Submit the application online on the J&K Employment Schemes Portal at jkgss.jk.gov.in, which carries the Rise Together card and its "Apply Now" link. Attach domicile, age, qualification, unemployment and police verification documents for every member.
4. Check the April shortlist. The assessment process is completed by the end of the financial year and the list of shortlisted proposals is notified in the month of April each year.
5. Attend counselling, then prepare and submit your Detailed Project Report (DPR) covering all significant contours of the proposed activity.
6. Clear the Technical Committee, constituted by the CEO, Mission Youth, which evaluates every DPR. Only DPRs found up to the mark move forward.
7. Complete the pre-sanction training capsule given to selected groups to help them execute the intended intervention.
8. Sign the indemnity bond attested by a First Class Judicial Magistrate, after which Mission Youth releases the upfront subsidy instantly and forwards the case to the lending bank for disbursement of the loan component as per the DPR schedule.

Post-disbursement, Mission Youth deposits 12 post-dated cheques with the lending bank to meet its committed matching share of the EMIs, and the same procedure is repeated year after year for the first four years of repayment.

How to check your Rise Together application status

1. Open jkgss.jk.gov.in and use the Application Status option in the top menu of the J&K Employment Schemes Portal.
2. Enter the application or reference number issued when you submitted the form.
3. If the portal shows nothing, call the Mission Youth helpline on 8447804864 or email missionyouthjk@gmail.com.
4. Watch the What's New and Notifications sections of missionyouth.jk.gov.in in April, when the shortlist of proposals is notified.

Why Rise Together applications get rejected

• Group smaller than 3 members, or a member outside the 18-35 age band.
• A member below Class 12 without a written relaxation from the CEO, Mission Youth.
• A member already benefiting from another government self-employment scheme or already holding a government-sponsored loan.
• A member is a bank defaulter, which also blocks the bank appraisal.
• A weak DPR. The Technical Committee rejects DPRs that do not stand up commercially; the underlying test applied by the expert committee is economic viability and a genuine localised facility gap.
• Missing police verification of character and antecedents for any member.
• Applying outside the January-to-March proposal window.

What obligations continue after the money is released?

Rise Together carries genuine post-sanction obligations that applicants should read before signing:

• The sanctioned amount may be used only for the purpose specified in the DPR. Deviation allows Mission Youth to initiate legal proceedings.
• No member may take up a government, public-sector or private-sector job without repaying the assistance provided.
• After the loan tenure ends, the enterprise must contribute a minimum of 10 per cent of its net profit towards community welfare of the social circuit concerned, and the local Panchayat or Municipal Body spends that money in consultation with Mission Youth.
• Assets created under the scheme must be insured by the beneficiary group.
• Mission Youth is not responsible for any default by the beneficiaries; the bank finances the case under its own normal assessment procedure.

Help and grievance redressal

• Mission Youth helpline: 8447804864
• Email: missionyouthjk@gmail.com
• Grievance portal: the Mission Youth website links to the Jammu and Kashmir grievance system at jkgrievance.in
• Clarifications and relaxations: the CEO, Mission Youth is competent to issue any clarification or modification to the guidelines, including relaxing an eligibility clause on a case-to-case basis.

Applying for Rise Together is free. No agent can charge you for submitting an application on jkgss.jk.gov.in or for "arranging" a sanction.