NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be launching the ‘PM Vishwakarma Scheme’ virtually on September 17 from Delhi on ‘Vishwakarma Day’ that will be attended by 70 ministers from 70 different locations across the country. PM Modi had mentioned the scheme during his Independence Day speech. The scheme was cleared by the Union cabinet.
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Union home minister Amit Shah will be attending the program from Ahmedabad while defence minister Rajnath Singh will attend from Lucknow. Union minister Nitin Gadkari will be present in Nagpur, Smriti Irani in Jhansi, Bhupender Yadav in Jaipur while S Jaishankar will join the program from Thiruvananthapuram. Similarly, other ministers have also been deputed mostly in their home states to attend the program.
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Under the scheme, Rs 13,000 crore will be spent in the coming five years on skill training and development of traditional artisans, craftsmen coming from communities like weavers, goldsmiths, blacksmiths, laundry workers and barbers largely belonging to the OBC community.
The scheme aims to improve the quality, scale and reach of products and services of artisans and craftspeople and to integrate them with the domestic and global value chain. This would result in the economic empowerment of such workers, especially those belonging to the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Communities, women, transgender and other weaker sections of the society. As the opposition is banking on the caste census for social justice and increasing its presence among the OBC community, the NDA government is planning to attract the OBCs, especially EBCs with this scheme before the Lok Sabha polls.
On September 17, which also happens to be PM Modi’s birthday, BJP will start the fortnight long celebration with a cleanliness drive, visiting beneficiaries of government schemes and meeting different sections ofthe society till October 2.
