SHOPIAN: Mumkin, a customized livelihood generation scheme of Mission Youth turned out to be a savior for Hatib Javaid of Memendar Shopian who always aspired to become self-reliant by becoming self-employed to secure a respectable livelihood that could fulfill the needs of his family.
Earlier, working as a daily wage labourer, Hatib could hardly bear the expenses of his family with meager earnings. “Sometimes I would not get work for many days and all my savings dried up those days, and this feeling of not being able to save money for my dream of being self-reliant by becoming self-employed had left me depressed,” said Hatib.
“Getting to know about the Mumkin scheme of the J&K government through an awareness programme by District Employment and Counseling Centre (DE&CC) Shopian gave me a ray of hope of realizing my dream,” said Hatib adding, “Besides, the awareness programme also gave my dream a direction i.e. to become self-employed by owning a vehicle.”
He said at the awareness programme last year, DE&CC Shopian gave him detailed information about the ‘Mumkin’ livelihood scheme and the official procedure and it was like a dream come true.
Hatib said he is satisfied being the happy owner of Tata Yodha and is earning enough to not only feed his family but also meet other expenses that he would earlier only dream of.
Laying emphasis on self-employment, the Employment Officer, DE&CC Shopian said that the Youth of Shopian should get more and more involved in self-employment ventures and entrepreneurship by availing the benefits under various self-employment schemes of the J&K government to stand on their own feet and earn for themselves besides creating job opportunities for others.
He said that the youth of Shopian have shown tremendous response to the government’s promising self-employment scheme viz. Mumkin to become self-employed, earn for themselves and their families.
Giving details, he said that the department has received as many as 200 applications under the Mumkin Scheme, and 144 cases have been approved till date, out of which 88 commercial vehicles have been provided to the beneficiaries.
He informed that under the Youth Livelihood scheme of the UT Government, small commercial vehicles are being provided to the beneficiaries, with the banking partners providing the loan facilities up to 100 per cent of the vehicle’s on-road price.
He further said that Mission Youth, Jammu and Kashmir, provides Rs 80,000 or 10 per cent of the vehicle’s on-road price, whichever is lesser, as an upfront subsidy, and the partnering vehicle manufacturers, provides an upfront special discount, not less than the subsidy amount, which comes out as total Rs 120,000 or 20% of the on road price in form of subsidy/discount for the beneficiary. Financial assistance for purchase of small commercial vehicles such as load carriers, Taxis, Minibusses, Tempo, etc is being covered under the scheme.
“No down payment or Margin money, collaterals, or guarantor is required for availing loan from Bank,” the Employment Officer added.
He said that the department is conducting wide publicity of the employment generation schemes of the Government so that the educated unemployed youth are engaged in sustainable livelihood and employment generation ventures.
Similarly, Sahil Ahmad Khanday of Pinjoora said he is on cloud nine after receiving a Mahindra Pickup Vehicle under the ‘Mumkin’ scheme.
Like many youngsters of his age, Khanday always dreamt of earning decent to improve the economic conditions of his family.
Seeing the struggle of his family in making ends meet, Khanday learned to drive at a young age and started lending a helping hand to his family. He was working for private companies and other vehicle owners on a daily basis.
“I was not earning enough to fund the education and other needs of my four younger siblings. I used to work for 12 to 14 hours daily, but at the end of the day, I was getting peanuts,” said Khanday while revealing his ordeal of tough times.
Last year, Khanday saw the news regarding the Mumkin scheme on social media and immediately rushed to the DE&CC Shopian.
Then after completing all formalities, he was handed over the keys of the vehicle of his choice. “I am thankful to the government for providing me a source of livelihood with subsidy,” Khanday said.
It is worth mentioning here that the livelihood generation scheme ‘Mumkin’ for the youth of Jammu and Kashmir was launched by Lieutenant Governor, Manoj Sinha, last year.
The ‘Mumkin’ is a livelihood programme designed primarily for unemployed young people in the age group of 18 to 35. To make the scheme implementation completely transparent, and fast, a module has been developed on the JK-e-Services portal for operating the scheme digitally.
‘Mumkin’ is a special initiative of the J&K administration towards channelizing the energy of Youth and engaging them through a systematic livelihood generation programme.
This initiative will help transform numerous lives in the UT through a collective approach of all stakeholders towards materializing the scheme into a huge success.