New Delhi: The government has, since 2019, on average, procured 2.03% from MSMEs owned by members of Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe communities and 2.46% from MSMEs owned by women entrepreneurs.The required annual percentage is 4% and 3% respectively, according to the Public Procurement Policy for Micro and Small Enterprises (MSEs) Order, 2012.MSMEs are micro, small and medium enterprises. These figures were given by the Union government in response to Congress MP Mukul Wasnik’s question on the annual procurement of goods and services from MSMEs owned by Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and women since 2019 and its percentage to the total procurement form MSMEs, and whether the government has any plans to enhance the level of procurement form SC, ST and women entrepreneurs and also to include MSMEs owned by persons with disabilities for preferential purchase.Wasnik also enquired into the details and the reasons behind either occurrence.The answer was by minister of state for MSMEs, Bhanu Pratap Singh Verma.The figures, since 2019-2020 and till 2023-2024, say that the highest procurement was in 2022-2023, Rs 63,835.23 crores. That year, only Rs 1,500.23 crores or 2.35% was procured from MSMEs owned by SC and ST entrepreneurs and Rs 2,196.48 or 3.44% was procured from women. The government said in the reply that “a number of steps have been taken to enhance the level of procurement from SC, ST and women entrepreneurs”.It citedi. A National SC/ST Hub scheme launched in October, 2016, implemented by the National Small Industries Corporation.ii. Special vendor development programmes and buyer-seller meets. It added that since 2019, a total number of 960,007 vendor MSEs have benefitted, which include 38,952 SC/ST-owned MSEs and 45,507 women-owned MSEs.iii. The launch of the MSME SAMBANDH Portal on December 8, 2017, to monitor the implementation of Public Procurement Policy for Micro and Small Enterprises.iv. The Ministry of MSME said it is actively engaged with the Department of Public Enterprises for better coordination with Central Public Sector Enterprises or government procuring entities).v. It said that in order to provide an easy access to procurement demands from Government Buyers, an online portal Government e-marketplace or GeM has been made and regular follow-ups are done.