Context: Recently, the Union Minister of Finance announced the 2nd Tranche of measures under Aatma Nirbhar Bharat Abhiyaan, to ameliorate the hardships faced specifically by migrant labours, street vendors, migrant urban poor, small traders self-employed people, small farmers and housing.
Key Points

• The announced measures also form a part of the Rs 20 lakh crore economic stimulus package to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic.
• Earlier, the Economic Stimulus-I was announced which includes both liquidity financing measures and credit guarantees.

Free food grains supply to migrants for 2 months

• For the migrant labour, additional food grain to all the States/UTs at the rate of 5 kg per migrant labourer and 1 kg Chana per family per month for two months i.e. May and June, 2020 free of cost shall be allocated.
• Migrant labourers not covered under National Food Security Act or without a ration card in the State/UT in which they are stranded at present will be eligible.
• States/UTs shall be advised to put a mechanism for targeted distribution as envisaged in the scheme.
• The entire outlay of Rs. 3500 crore will be borne by Government of India.

One Nation-One Ration Card

• It is announced that, by August 2020, the ration card portability scheme will allow 67 crore NFSA beneficiaries in 23 connected States to use their cards at any ration shop anywhere in the country.
• This would allow migrant workers to access subsidised food away from their home villages. The scheme would cover all beneficiaries by March 2021.
• The Pilot scheme for portability of ration cards will be extended to 23 states.
• 100% National portability will be achieved by March, 2021.
• It will enable a migrant worker and their family members to access PDS benefits from any Fair Price Shop in the country.

Affordable Rental Housing Complexes for Migrant Workers and Urban Poor

• The Central Government will launch a scheme for migrant workers and urban poor to provide ease of living at affordable rent.
• Affordable Rental Housing Complexes will provide social security and quality life to migrant labour, urban poor, and students etc.
• It will be done through converting government funded houses in the cities into Affordable Rental Housing Complexes (ARHC) under PPP mode through concessionaire; manufacturing units, industries, institutions, associations to develop Affordable Rental Housing Complexes (ARHC) on their private land and operate.

2% Interest Subvention for 12 months for Shishu MUDRA loanees - Relief of Rs. 1,500 crore

• The Government of India will provide Interest subvention of 2% for prompt payees for a period of 12 months to MUDRA Shishu loanees, who have loans below Rs 50,000.
• The current portfolio of MUDRA Shishu loans is around Rs 1.62 Lakh crore.

Credit facility for Street Vendors

• A special scheme will be launched within a month to facilitate easy access to credit to Street vendors, who are amongst the most adversely impacted by the present situation for enabling them to restart their businesses.
• Under this scheme, bank credit facility for initial working capital up to Rs. 10,000 for each enterprise will be extended.
• It is expected that 50 lakh street vendors will be benefitted under this scheme and credit of Rs. 5,000 crore would flow to them.
• Rs 70,000 crore boost to housing sector and middle income group through extension of  Credit Linked Subsidy Scheme for MIG under PMAY(Urban)
• The Credit Linked Subsidy Scheme for Middle Income Group (annual Income between Rs 6 and 18 lakhs) will be extended up to March 2021.
• It will benefit 2.5 lakhs middle income families during 2020-21 and will lead to investment of over Rs 70,000 crore in housing sector.

Creating employment using CAMPA funds

• Approximately Rs 6,000 crore of funds under Compensatory Afforestation Management & Planning Authority (CAMPA) will be used for Afforestation and Plantation works, including in urban areas, Artificial regeneration, assisted natural regeneration, Forest management, soil & moisture conservation works, Forest protection, forest and wildlife related infrastructure development, wildlife protection and management etc.

Additional Emergency Working Capital for farmers through NABARD

• NABARD will extend additional re-finance support of Rs 30,000 crore for meeting crop loan requirement of Rural Cooperative Banks and RRBs.
• It will benefit around 3 crore farmers, mostly small and marginal and it will meet their post-harvest Rabi and current Kharif requirements.

Credit boost under Kisan Credit Card Scheme

• A special drive to provide concessional credit to PM-KISAN beneficiaries through Kisan Credit Cards. Fisherman and Animal Husbandry Farmers will also be included in this drive.
• It will inject additional liquidity of Rs 2 lakh crore in the farm sector. 2.5 crore farmers will be covered.

Criticisms

• An economist pointed out that the only fiscal outlay in the announcements are the Rs 3,500 crore for food grains to migrants and Rs 1,500 crore for the MUDRA loanees. So only Rs 5,000 crore is actually coming from government coffers, while the rest are credit-based measures.
• Terming the government’s approach as stingy and half-hearted, it was noted that at a time when demand is down, any move to provide liquidity are not going to help.
• It is believed that putting cash in people’s pockets would have been a better approach.
• IIM-Ahmedabad professor and economist who had calculated that 10 crore people have been excluded from NFSA coverage due to growth since census 2011, said the new intervention of providing free foodgrains would not even cover that shortfall.
• There are 50 crore people in the country without ration cards, of which 10 crore are legally entitled to PDS grain under NFSA. Of the rest, there are many people who were managing in normal times, vegetable vendors, gig economy workers, autorickshaw drivers, who are in dire straits now. PDS needed to be extended to all these people at this time.
• Economists have asked the government for a one-time cash transfer to vulnerable sections like migrant labourers.
• There were no steps taken to extend Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) employment guarantee to at least 200 days. Currently, MGNREGA aims to provide at least 100 days of wage employment.