Union Government launched Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana

Union government on 25 September 2014 launched Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana. The Yojana was launched by Nitin Gadkari, Union Minister for Rural Development during the National Convention on Skills for Rural and Urban Poor held in New Delhi.

The Yojana was launched during the 98th birth anniversary of Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay. Earlier the Yojana was known as Aajeevika Skills Development Programme (ASDP).

Main Highlights of the Yojana

• The Yojana aims at training 10 lakh (1 million) rural youths for jobs in three years, that is, by 2017.
• The minimum age for entry under the Yojana is 15 years compared to 18 years under the Aajeevika Skills Programme.
• Skill development training centres to be launched so as to address the unemployment problem in the rural area.
• The skills imparted under the Yojana will now be benchmarked against international standards and will complement the Prime Minister’s Make In India campaign.
• The Kaushalya Yojana will also the address the need for imparting training to the differently-able persons and chip in private players including international players to impart the skills to the rural youths.

The Rationale for launching the Yojana

The Yojana was launched in the light of huge problem of unemployment among the rural youths despite the fact that they have merits. In order to correct this match, Union government decided to launch skill development scheme.

Further, in light of the fact that, by 2020 developed countries will have a shortfall of over 57 million semi-skilled workers while India by 2020 will have 47 million surplus of workers. This effectively means that there will be high demand for skilled manpower in developed countries, where Indian rural youth can be absorbed after they acquire industry-specific training.

Status of Skilled workers in India

In India as against 12 million people entering the workforce every year during the last 10 years only 1 million youths were trained. Further out of 12 million people, only 10 percent were skilled ones, while the percentage in European Union is 75 and in China it is 50 percent. Also, as compared to 4500 skills in China, India only has 1600 skills, a huge gap indeed.

About the Aajeevika Skill Development Programme (ASDP)

Aajeevika Skills Development Programme (ASDP) was launched in June 2011 as a sub-mission under the National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM). It was launched to cater to the occupational aspirations of the rural youth who are poor and to diversify incomes of the rural poor.

The ASDP aimed at skilling and placing 50 lakhs youth in the formal sector by 2017.