Swachhta Udyami Yojana and NFSC: Three Scheme Case Studies

The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment put out three beneficiary accounts on 5 October 2026, each showing what one of its schemes paid for and what changed afterwards. Together they cover a livelihood scheme, a research fellowship and a vehicle subsidy.

Swachhta Udyami Yojana: a waste picker buys a machine

Mekala Nancharamma, 30, of the Scheduled Tribe community, had picked waste in the Guntur Municipal Corporation area for about 12 years and had never been to school. Under the Swachhta Udyami Yojana (SUY), routed through the Navajeevan Organisation, a two-member group project financed a tractor-mounted Open Nallah Cleaner. The project cost Rs 16,99,952, made up of a loan of Rs 10,24,964 and a capital subsidy of Rs 6,74,988. The machine earns her an extra Rs 10,000 a month, taking her monthly income from about Rs 8,000 to around Rs 18,000.

National Fellowship for Scheduled Caste: a PhD completed

Pratibha Rani, 35, of Faridabad in Haryana, received support under the National Fellowship for Scheduled Caste (NFSC) from September 2019. The award covered the fellowship itself, house rent allowance and contingency expenses, and came to about Rs 18 lakh over its term, which carried her through a doctorate. She later joined a project at the CSIR-National Physical Laboratory in New Delhi on Rs 43,000 a month for a year. Alongside her studies she has taught underprivileged children for around 12 years.

NSFDC subsidy: an electric auto-rickshaw

Durgesh Barkhane of Junardev in Chhindwara district, Madhya Pradesh, was selected under the NSFDC Electric Auto-Rickshaw Subsidy Scheme, 2024 and received Rs 1,85,000. He had no steady income before this; the vehicle gave him a livelihood and a way to support his family.

Why the three matter for exams

The accounts are a reminder of which body runs what. The Swachhta Udyami Yojana funds mechanised sanitation equipment for people engaged in waste work, pairing a bank loan with a capital subsidy so that a worker can own the machine. The NFSC pays for doctoral research by Scheduled Caste scholars, and the fellowship, house rent allowance and contingency heads are the three parts of the award. The National Scheduled Castes Finance and Development Corporation, or NSFDC, runs credit-linked subsidy schemes for self-employment, including the electric auto-rickshaw scheme notified in 2024.