Saranya - Self Employment Scheme for Women

Saranya is a self-employment scheme for women in Kerala. Saranya scheme by the Kerala Government aims at uplifting backward and segregated women like widows, divorced women, deserted women, spinsters above the age of 30 and unwedded mothers of Scheduled Tribe. Under Saranya scheme, an interest-free bank loan of up to Rs. 50,000 is provided for commencing self-employment ventures. 50% of loans under Saranya scheme are reimbursed as Government subsidy up to a maximum of Rs. 25,000 via the Employment Department. Repayment for the loan under Saranya self-employment scheme should be made in 60 equal monthly instalments. If a venture needs an amount above the limit of Rs. 50000, the applicant must remit her beneficiary contribution, which is 10%. Moreover, the beneficiary must pay 3% as interest at a flat rate for the amount she avails in excessive of Rs. 50000. Saranya scheme is applicable for individual ventures. However, a woman can also start a joint venture with more than one entrepreneur. Each person of this joint venture would then receive a maximum amount of loan and its subsidy.

Eligibility for Saranya Scheme

All unemployed widows, divorced women, deserted women, spinsters above the age of 30 and unwedded mothers of Scheduled Tribe registered with the Kerala Employment Exchanges between the age limit of 18 to 55 except in the case of spinsters if they are eligible.

Widow

Widows are women whose husbands are deceased and who has not remarried until the scheme is applied. The widow must obtain a certificate from the Village Officer, President of the Grama Panchayath, Chairman of the Municipal Corporation or the Mayor of the Corporation on a case to case basis.

Divorced Woman

Divorced women are the women who have been divorced via the court of law or vis their religious organizations. Certificate to the effect that she has not remarried until the application of the scheme must be obtained from the village officer.

Deserted Woman

Deserted women are women deserted by her husband or a woman whose husband is missing (for at least 7 years). Such women must produce a certificate from the Tahsildar that she has not remarried until the application of the scheme.

Spinsters

Spinsters are women who have completed the age of 30 years as on 1st April of the year of application and have not yet married. The spinsters must produce the certificate in accordance with this from the Village Officer.

Unmarried Mother

Unmarried mother women belonging to the Scheduled Tribe category and have become a mother without getting married. Certificate to this effect must be obtained from the Village Officer stating clearly that the women belong to a particular caste and community in the certificate. The annual family income must not exceed Rs.1,00,000. Preference would be provided to those with professional or technical qualification.

Application for Loan under Saranya Scheme

Application forms could be downloaded from the website or could be obtained physically from Employment Exchange where the candidate had registered and fill the details and submit along with the detailed project report and income certificate from the village officer. A copy of the application form for Saranya scheme is below for reference: [pdf-embedder url="https://www.indiafilings.com/learn/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Saranya-Scheme-Application-Form.pdf" title="Saranya Scheme Application Form"] Primary verification of the application would be conducted at the Employment Exchange the correctness of the data filled in the application, income certificate, community certificate, certificate regarding their marital status etc. After the submission of the application to the Town Employment Exchange, the concerned District Employment Exchange will receive it.

Processing of Application

The District Employment Officer submits scrutinized applications to the District Committee for sanctioning loans. Sanctioning authority is the District Committee for Saranya where District Collector is the Chairman and District Employment Officer is the Convener. The Government of Kerala is the appellate authority. On sanction of the loan under Saranya scheme, a demand draft for the loan amount is directly sent to the bank account of the applicant from the Employment Department. The beneficiaries of Saranya Self Employment Scheme would be considered for the regular vacancy only and not for a temporary vacancy.

Monitoring

The Director of Employment is the controlling officer of the scheme. The District Employment Officers and Employment Officers of Town Employment Exchanges monitor the scheme. If the beneficiary does not repay for three consecutive instalments, two reminders would be sent. If there is no response, a revenue recovery action to recover the loan amount with interest would be initiated. Moreover, if it is found later that the loan amount is utilized for other purposes than the project sanctioned; the full amount, including the subsidy, would be recovered via revenue recovery procedures. The beneficiary would be exempted from providing any security for the loan amount.