JAMMU : 31 year old Muzafar Wani of Ramsoo, Ramban, always dreamt of owning a vehicle as he wanted to secure a respectable livelihood that could fulfil the needs of his family and open the door to him for a better tomorrow.

Wani, before working as driver for different vehicle owners, couldn’t bear the expenses of his family of four including his two daughters with that meagre salary.

“Sometimes I would not get work for many days. Many times I decided to stop my daughters from going to school. I always wanted to educate them but financial constraints always forced me to look other way”, Wani said as he was revealing his struggle of 12 years while working for different vehicle owners on daily basis.

Wani couldn’t save enough money to purchase his own vehicle and the unfulfilled needs of the family had left him in an overwhelming feeling of frustration and depression. That is when Mumkin scheme of J&K government came to the rescue of Wani.

“In October last year, a friend of mine informed me about the ‘Mumkin’ livelihood scheme for unemployed youth and asked me to contact Mission Youth officials. It was like a dream come true when I was informed about the benefits of the scheme,” he said.

Wani said he is satisfied being the happy owner of Tata Yodha and is earning enough to feed his family and educate his daughters.

A customized livelihood generation scheme ‘Mumkin’ for the youth of Jammu and Kashmir was launched by Lieutenant Governor, Manoj Sinha. Under the scheme, unemployed youth are facilitated to procure small commercial vehicles on subsidized basis to establish a sustainable livelihood in transport sector.

The ‘Mumkin’ is a livelihood programme designed primarily for unemployed young people in the age bracket of 18 to 35. Under the ‘Mumkin’ scheme, small commercial vehicles are being provided to the youth with the banking partner extending the loan facility to the extent of 100 percent for on-road price of the vehicle to be purchased.

Mission Youth, J&K provides an amount of Rs 80,000 or 10 percent for on-road price of the vehicle (whichever is lesser) as upfront subsidy and the vehicle manufacturers (scheme partner of government) provide an upfront special discount, not less than the amount of subsidy.

To make the scheme implementation completely transparent and fast, a module has been developed on JK-e-Services portal for operating the scheme digitally. Till date, 1882 applications for self-employment assistance under the scheme have been approved.

Riyaz Raqeeb of Khonmoh Srinagar said he is on cloud nine after receiving Mahindra Pickup Vehicle under ‘Mumkin’ scheme.

Like many youngsters of his age, Raqeeb always dreamt of earning his livelihood and making the economic conditions of his family better.

Seeing the struggle of his family in making two ends meet, Raqeeb learnt driving at a young age and started lending a helping hand to his family of six including his four siblings. He was working for private companies and other vehicle owners on daily basis.

“I was not earning enough to fund the education and other needs of my four younger siblings. I used to work for 12 to 14 hours daily, but at the end of the day, I was getting peanuts,” Raqeeb revealed his ordeal of tough times.

In August last year, Raqeeb saw the news regarding the Mumkin scheme on social media and immediately rushed to the District Employment and Counseling Centre Srinagar. Then after completing all formalities, he was provided with a vehicle.

“I am thankful to the government for providing me a source of livelihood with subsidy,” Raqeeb said.

‘Mumkin’ is definitely a special initiative of J&K administration towards channelizing and engaging youth energy through a systematic livelihood generation programme. This exclusive initiative would definitely transform numerous lives in the UT through a collective approach of all stakeholders towards materializing the scheme into a huge success.