Swachhta Udyami Yojana (Swachhta Se Sampannta Ki Aur)

What is Swachhta Udyami Yojana?

Swachhta Udyami Yojana; "Swachhta Se Sampannta Ki Aur" (from sanitation to prosperity); is a concessional loan scheme of the National Safai Karamcharis Finance and Development Corporation (NSKFDC), a corporation under the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment. According to the NSKFDC, the scheme aims to bring mechanised cleaning into the sanitation sector and to give Safai Karamcharis and liberated manual scavengers a safe, dignified and sustainable livelihood in place of hazardous manual work.

Swachhta Udyami Yojana provides financial assistance at concessional rates of interest for the procurement and operation of sanitation-related equipment and vehicles. It is not a grant or subsidy scheme, it is a term loan routed through NSKFDC's Channelising Agencies, partner banks and Urban Local Bodies. Financial assistance is available to individuals, Self-Help Groups, Joint Responsibility Groups, cooperatives, Dry Waste Collection Centres and Urban Local Bodies, so that sanitation entrepreneurs from the target community can own and run mechanised sanitation businesses.

How much benefit does Swachhta Udyami Yojana provide?

NSKFDC funds three broad categories of borrower under the scheme.

Individuals and groups (through Channelising Agencies)

NSKFDC charges the Channelising Agency only 3% per annum, and the agency in turn charges the beneficiary 6% per annum. Women beneficiaries receive a 1% rebate on interest, and a further 0.5% rebate is available for timely repayment. A woman entrepreneur who repays on schedule therefore pays an effective rate of about 4.5% per annum — well below commercial sanitation-equipment finance.

Urban Local Bodies

Urban Local Bodies can be financed for procurement of sanitation-related equipment and vehicles costing up to Rs 75,00,000 per unit. Additional gap funding through concessional loans is available for municipal solid waste management, construction of pay-and-use community or public toilets, waste-to-compost units, and waste collection and segregation units. For Urban Local Bodies the interest rate is 7% per annum, with a 1% rebate for timely repayment and a 7-year repayment period.

Who is eligible for Swachhta Udyami Yojana?

You can apply if:

• You are a Safai Karamchari (including a waste picker), an identified manual scavenger, or a dependent of one.
• You are a registered cooperative society of Safai Karamcharis.
• You are a legally constituted association or firm promoted by the target group.
• You can produce a status certificate from a competent authority, a local Revenue Officer, Municipal Officer, Cantonment Executive Officer, Railway Officer, a gazetted head of a government department (school, college, forest, health, education, animal husbandry), an elected member of a municipal body, a Gram Panchayat Pradhan, or a Regional Manager of an RRB or Nationalised Bank.
• The project you propose is financially viable and can generate income.

An applicant already identified as a manual scavenger under the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013 does not need to furnish a separate certificate if their name appears in the final list of manual scavengers prepared by the State Government or Union Territory.

You cannot apply if you are not a Safai Karamchari, waste picker, identified manual scavenger or their dependent. The scheme is restricted to this target group and the bodies they form. There is no fixed income ceiling, but a person outside the community, or one whose proposed project is not a viable income-generating sanitation enterprise, is not eligible. NSKFDC gives priority within the eligible group to scavengers whose income is below double the poverty line, and to women and persons with disabilities.

What documents are required for Swachhta Udyami Yojana?

How to apply for Swachhta Udyami Yojana

There is no direct online application for individuals. The scheme runs through NSKFDC's network of State Channelising Agencies (SCAs), Regional Rural Banks (RRBs) and Nationalised Banks, and the steps below reflect the official process.

1. Submit the loan application with your documents to the District Office of your State Channelising Agency of NSKFDC, or to a branch of a Regional Rural Bank or Nationalised Bank. The current list of Channelising Agencies is on the NSKFDC portal.
2. The District Office scrutinises the application and forwards it to its Head Office.
3. The SCA, RRB or bank appraises the project's viability and sends viable proposals to NSKFDC with its recommendation.
4. The Project Appraisal Committee of NSKFDC examines the proposal.
5. Proposals found in order are placed before the Board of Directors of NSKFDC for sanction.
6. After approval, NSKFDC issues a Sanction Letter (Letter of Intent) to the SCA, RRB or bank for acceptance, after which the loan is disbursed to you and you begin implementing your sanitation project.

Help and where to start

Because the scheme is delivered through intermediaries, your first point of contact is the District Office of the NSKFDC State Channelising Agency in your state, or a nearby RRB or Nationalised Bank branch. The list of Channelising Agencies and the scheme brochure are published on the NSKFDC portal at nskfdc.nic.in. No agent can charge you a fee to "get your loan sanctioned": appraisal and sanction follow the official committee process described above.