Tamil Nadu: CM Stalin Rejects PM Modi’s Vishwakarma Scheme

Chennai: Chief Minister M K Stalin said a firm ‘no’ to the Prime Minister’s Vishwakarma Scheme since it, in its present form, strengthened the system of caste-based vocation and assured to come up with an alternative comprehensive scheme to empower traditional artisans in Tamil Nadu under the overall principle of social justice.

In a letter to Union Minister of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), Jitan Ram Manjhi on Tuesday, Stalin said the State Government scheme would be more inclusive and comprehensive for artisans without discriminating on the basis of caste.

‘This scheme will provide holistic support to all artisans in the State, irrespective of caste or family occupations. Such a scheme will serve to provide them with financial assistance, training and all required support for their development, more comprehensively and inclusively,’ he said about the State scheme.

Referring to his earlier letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on January 4, 2024, requesting for modifications in the Prime Minister’s Vishwakarma scheme, Stalin said since he had received a reply from the Union Minister of MSMEs on March 15 with no mention of the modifications suggested, the State government would not be taking forward the implementation of the PM Vishwakarma scheme in its present form.

After writing to the Prime Minister, expressing the State government’s opinion and requesting for modification in the scheme, a committee, set up to study it, made three recommendations that include removal of the mandatory need for the applicant’s family to be engaged in the family based traditional trade.

Apart from the demand that any person pursuing any of the occupations listed in the guidelines should be eligible for assistance, the second recommendation was increasing the minimum age to 35 years to help those who have made an informed choice to continue their family trade, too, avail of benefits.

The third recommendation was to shift the onus of verification in rural areas to the Village Administrative Officer (VAO) from the Revenue Department.

Artisans and crafts persons of the 18 traditional trades who would be covered under the scheme are carpenters, boat makers, armourers, blacksmiths, hammer and tool kit makers, locksmiths, goldsmiths, potters, sculptors, stone carvers, stone breakers, cobblers, shoe makers, masons, basket makers, mat maker, broom maker, traditional doll and toy makers, barbers, garland makers, dhobis and fishnet makers.

The State government has been resisting the implementation of the scheme since its launch in September 2023, and senior BJP leaders had even campaigned for it by organizing meetings with traditional artisans. Now the Chief Minister had put his foot down and said that the State would come up with an alternative scheme.