Perception of the Beneficiaries of PMEGP: A Micro Level Study

Abstract

Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP) was launched in the year 2008 by merging the then Prime Minister’s Rojgar Yojana (PMRY) and Rural Employment Generation Programme (REGP) schemes with a higher level of subsidy than PMRY and REGP. Under PMEGP, the beneficiary can directly approach Bank/Financial Institution along with his/her project proposal or it can be sponsored by Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC)/ Khadi and Village Industries Boards KVIBs/ District Industries Centre (DIC)/Panchayat Karyalayas etc. The applications received directly by the Banks are referred to the Task Force Committee, constituted at district level under the chairmanship of District Magistrate/Deputy Commissioner/Collector to scrutinize the applications based on the experience, technical qualification, skill, viability of the project etc. and hold quarterly meeting with the Banks at district level to review the status of the project proposals. During the last three years, since the launch of Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP), the estimated number of employment opportunitiescreated is 10.98 lakh persons (www.pib.in). Besides providing financial assistance, it compulsorily incorporates short-term Entrepreneurial Development Programme (EDP) training module, for comprehensively guiding the beneficiaries in launching and managing their micro enterprises. Today, Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme is the most important self-employment programme of the Government and a household name in every corner of the country. The paper aims to evaluate Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme in terms of the beneficiaries of the study group. The hypothesis tested was that income earned /problems faced by the beneficiaries didn’t differ. The sample unit consists of 277 beneficiaries of the Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme in Coimbatore district. Out of which 122 were females and 155 were male beneficiaries. The tools used to analyze the data were percentage, paired t test and KW test.