Last updated: February 14th, 2020 4:23 PM

Udyogini Scheme for Women Entrepreneurship

The Government of India has initiated various schemes for the welfare of women and their development. A significant concern has been to make them self-reliant by empowering them in business and labour force, for which the Women Development Corporation has implemented the Udyogini scheme. The word ‘Udyogini’ means women, entrepreneur. As the name suggests, the scheme helps in motivating women entrepreneurship among the poor, mainly illiterate women in the rural and backward areas of the country by financially supporting them. This enables them to elevate their status by participating in businesses and building micro-enterprises.  This not only enhances the income of an individual or family but also contributes to the overall growth of the country by initiating an economic boom.

Udyogini Scheme – Karnataka

The Karnataka State Women Development Corporation (KSWDC) has launched the Udyogini scheme in Karnataka under which it aims to promote self-employment by providing subsidy loans.

Objectives of Udyogini Scheme

The prime objective of the Karnataka state is to employ this scheme to assist women to be self-reliant by undertaking the businesses and micro-enterprises and prevent them from borrowing money at high-interest rates from the moneylenders for the same. Furthermore, it envisages offering skill development training in addition to monetary assistance.

Features of Udyogini Scheme

Udyogini Scheme provides interest-free loans to women of all section without any discrimination. The applicant can receive the application for a loan from the Corporation branch of each district. Interest-free loans will be sanctioned to 88 small industries that include grocery work, bakery, pickle trade, fish business, sewing work, beauty parlour, STD booth. The loan amount has been increased to Rs. 3,00,000, which was Rs. 1,00,000 earlier. The Government proposes a 30% subsidy on loan. Udyogini executes an evaluation to assess if the selection of the beneficiary is transparent and fair.

Eligibility Criteria:

The Karnataka State Government has announced many changes in the eligibility criteria to extend its service further:

• The applicant should be a woman
• The income ceiling is Rs. 1.5 Lakhs now against Rs. 40,000, which was the previous income limit
• The age limit of the applying woman is restricted to 45, which is now raised to 55 years, i.e., the eligible age limit is 18-55

Note: Women belonging to special categories like destitute, widows or disabled have no upper limit for income.

Documents Required for Udyogini:

• Filled Application Form
• Birth Certificate
• Caste Certificate
• Income Certificate
• Aadhaar Card
• Ration Card
• BPL card
• Copy of Bank passbook (bank name, branch name, holder name, account, MICR and IFSC code).

Udyogini has proposed to establish a comprehensive information resource portal for women to communicate information about the scheme and facilities available and aims to reach 100,000 poor women by 2020.