462,265 urban poor assisted to set up micro enterprises:Selja

New Delhi, Mar 8 (UNI) Altogether 4,62,265 urban poor have been assisted to set up micro-enterprises and 5,60,032 others provided skill training during the Tenth Plan as part of efforts to reduce poverty, Minister of State for Housing and Poverty Alleviation Kumari Selja said today.

Referring to her Ministry's attempts at poverty alleviation, the Minister told the Rajya Sabha in a written reply that the figures, based on quarterly progress reports submitted by states and union territories received up to February 28, 2007, showed that the target set under the Swarna Jayanti Shahari Rozgar Yojana (SJSRY) during the Tenth Plan period had been exceeded.

During the Tenth Plan (2002-2007), it was proposed to provide 4,00,000 job opportunities to the urban poor through setting up of micro-group enterprises and to impart skill training to 5,00,000 urban poor under the employment-oriented urban poverty alleviation programme, SJSRY.

She said the Tenth Plan period had set a target for reduction of poverty by five percentage points by 2007 and by 15 percentage points by 2012.

The scheme, which is implemented by states or union territories, envisages providing gainful employment to the urban unemployed and underemployed poor by encouraging the setting up of self-employment ventures by those who have studied beyond the ninth standard, as also providing wage employment by utilising their labour for construction of socially and economically useful public assets.

UNI