Street vendors and small businesses functioning out of unauthorised areas could soon become eligible for loans given to members of the Scheduled Caste (SC), Scheduled Tribe (ST), Other Backward Class (OBC) and minority communities by a Delhi government corporation.

Social Welfare Minister Rajendra Pal Gautam, who is the chairperson of the Delhi SC/ST/OBC/Minority and Handicapped Finance and Development Corporation Ltd. (DSFDC), directed the DSFDC at a board meeting last week to set up a committee to simplify the loan schemes offered by the corporation.

“We want more people to be eligible for the schemes so the committee will look into the possibility of street vendors and those running small businesses out of unauthorised areas to be covered. With that, 25-30 lakh more people will become eligible,” Mr. Gautam said.

During the meeting on December 28, several schemes of the DSFDC were reviewed. A statement from the Minister’s office on Monday stated that 212 loans had been disbursed in the current financial year as of December 14. In the 2017-2018 financial year, the DSFDC disbursed 261 loans.

The committee set up to simplify the schemes would submit its report within 15 days from the board meeting, the Minister said. Among the issues the committee will consider will be a waiver of processing fee for applicants of the Composite Loan Scheme, the Transport Loan Scheme and the Education Loan Scheme; the simplification of the loan processing; and the easing of the terms and conditions for the Delhi Swarojgar Yojana in order to include street vendors and people engaged in petty businesses.

Currently, under the Delhi Swarojgar Yojana, SC, ST, OBC and minority communities’ applicants need to have “proper work place for starting the proposed activity either owned by the applicant or his/her relative or rented” in order to get a loan of up to ₹5 lakh.

Among the activities covered are vegetable shops, kirana stores, paan shops, tailoring shops and photocopy shops.