Swavalamban Yojana

Swavalamban Scheme, a co-contributory Scheme, was launched, in September, 2010 to encourage people from the unorganized sector to voluntarily save for their retirement. The Central Government would contribute a sum of Rs.1,000 in each New Pension System (NPS) account opened under the Scheme where the subscriber is able to save Rs. 1,000 to Rs.12,000 during a financial year. This scheme is open to those citizens of India who are not part of any statutory pension/provident fund scheme. The target beneficiaries of Swavalamban Scheme are:

(i)         Co-contribution scheme beneficiaries of State Governments.

(ii)        Aanganwaadi workers.

(iii)       Construction workers.

(iv)       Occupational classes like weavers, fishermen, farmers, dairy workers etc.

(v)        Beneficiaries of services from various NGOs.

(vi)       Beneficiaries of micro credit from MFIs, nationalized banks etc.

The benefits of the Swavalamban Scheme have been extended from three years to five years for subscribers enrolled during 2010-11, 2011-12 and also for the subscribers enrolled during 2012-13.

The Scheme has been approved by the Government.

The scheme has already been launched on 26.09.2010.

The scheme is likely to benefit around 70 lakh workers from the unorganized sector by the year 2016-17.