A unique employment initiative known as the Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Kaushal Vikas Yojana or DDU-GKY, was launched by the Government of India. This initiative was launched with the aim to increase employment rates in India. The rural parts of India often have a large population, especially of young and employable individuals. These individuals are driven, motivated and ambitious, but they lack the resources and knowledge to utilize their ambitions and turn them into employment opportunities. This is where the Deen Dayal Upadhyaya scheme helps them. This scheme helps tackle the issue of unemployment in rural areas by motivating and empowering the youth in rural areas so that they can go ahead and find employment opportunities. The aim is to help them find a job that provides them with a regular source of income that is higher than that of a daily wage worker.
As a country, India has an urgent need for a larger workforce, and this scheme helps meet that need. This is done by providing the youth in rural areas with skill training. This training helps the rural youth acquire skills that would eventually help them find employment opportunities. This serves a dual purpose. The youth would not only have access to a stable source of income, but they would also be contributing to the economic growth and development of the country. This scheme aspires to train 55 million people in rural areas.
The target group of this scheme is the rural youth that falls between the ages of 15-35, which is the employable age group. This group is provided with basic education and skill development. They are specifically trained in skills that would help them find employment opportunities later on in life. One of the most important factors that motivate this scheme is to provide the youth with a stable monthly income. This source of income helps them feel empowered and helps them support themselves and their families. It also helps in driving the economy forward, along with empowering the young people in rural areas.
This scheme is a part of the National Rural Livelihoods Mission (NRLM) and the aim of this mission is to transform the youth in rural areas into an economically independent workforce.
Let us look into some of the main objectives of the Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Scheme
The scheme is driven by the basic objective of reducing poverty in rural areas by making sure that more people find employment opportunities. The Government of India took a few factors into consideration before putting this scheme into action. Here are some of the factors.
- Due to the fact that there is unfair access to resources, skills and knowledge, young people in rural areas often miss out on employment opportunities. The scheme aims to make sure that this issue is tackled by making sure that the youth are provided with relevant training and resources.
- The scheme also places a very strong emphasis on social mobilization to develop the workforce in the country.
- Extremely strict guidelines are followed when it comes to training the youth. To make sure that the young people have clarity about the scheme, the youth and their parents are provided with counselling.
- To make sure that the training provided is of the highest quality, strict checks take place on a regular basis.
All of these factors and checks make sure that the rural youth are fully prepared for the process of employment. The trainees are selected on the basis of their skills and aptitudes. They are trained in skills that they are most interested in, and show some amount of proficiency in. Once the individuals are fully trained, they are provided with all the support they need till they find employment.
The scheme also places a strong emphasis on the paradigm shift between training and progression into a career. This is meant to enable the poor people to grow in their careers, which they are otherwise unable to do. The main priority of the scheme is to make sure that the rural youth get access to employment opportunities once they complete their training process. One of the most important and visible benefits of this scheme is the amount of importance it places on social inclusion.
50% of the funds within this scheme are reserved for socially disadvantaged groups like SC/ST/OBC, while 15% is reserved for minorities and 3% for people with disabilities. AISECT has partnered with this scheme to make sure that training and placement opportunities are provided to the rural youth. If you would like to know more about this scheme, and other such schemes, please visit the website www.aisect.org
