The Government of India has set an ambitious target for providing skill training to 500 million of its youth by 2022, which is in line with the estimated demand for skilled manpower over the next decade. As per the 2011 Census, India has 55 million potential workers between the ages of 15 and 35 years in rural areas. At the same time, many industrialized nations are facing an ageing population problem. Some of these countries are expected to face a cumulative shortage of 57 million workers by 2020. These numbers represent a historic opportunity for India to transform its demographic surplus into a demographic dividend.
Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana (DDU-GKY), the skill training and placement program of the Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD) and Maharashtra State occupies a unique position amongst other skill training programmes, due to its focus on the rural poor youth and its emphasis on sustainable employment through the prominence and incentives given to post-placement tracking, retention and career progression. Even as India moves towards becoming an international skills hub, there is a need to acknowledge the challenges preventing the rural poor from taking advantage of this momentous economic transition. Lack of formal education, marketable skills and other constraints imposed by poverty place significant entry barriers to today's job market. DDU-GKY is therefore designed to not only provide high quality skill training opportunities to the rural poor, but also to establish a larger ecosystem that supports trained candidates secure a better future.
The overall objective of Aajeevika Skill Programme implemented in the State for the year 2016-19 is to initiate trade related Skill Development and Placement Programme in the State and to build skills of 50120 poor rural youth across the state ensuring suitable employment to at least 35882 youths.
There are various interventions that DDU-GKY supports. All are executed with the help of Project Implementing Agency (PIAs) and retention is tracked. These interventions are for:
The target group for DDU-GKY is poor rural youth in the age group of 15-35. However, the upper-age limit for women candidates, and candidates belonging to Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs), Persons with Disabilities (PwDs), Transgender and other Special Groups like rehabilitated bonded labour, victims of trafficking, manual scavengers, trans-genders, HIV positive persons, etc shall be 45 years.
The poor will be identified by a process called Participatory Identification of Poor (PIP) which is an important component of the NRLM strategy. Till the time poor are identified through the use of PIP, apart from the existing list of Below Poverty Line (BPL) households, youth from MGNREGA worker household with at least 15 days work in the previous financial year by any of its family members, or a youth from a household with RSBY card wherein the details of youth is mentioned in the card, or a youth from households who have been issued Antyodaya Anna Yojana / BPL PDS cards, or a youth from a household where a family member is a member of SHG under NRLM, or a youth from a household covered under auto inclusion parameters as per SECC, 2011 (when notified), shall also be eligible to avail the skilling program even if such youth are not in the BPL list.
