Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana-DDU-GKY-MORD-GOI
(i)DDU-GKY
The aim is to skill rural youth who are poor and provide them with jobs having regular monthly wages at or above the minimum wages. DDU-GKY derives its importance from its potential to reduce poverty by diversifying incomes and reducing their uncertainty. There is a continuum of skills that are required in an economy and there are various ways in which to acquire them. In India, while higher-level skills have received some attention, the same cannot be said for skills for which formal education is not a prerequisite. The fact is that the poor are doubly hit – first because of poverty and second because of poor access to formal education. DDU-GKY seeks to fill this gap by imparting specific set of knowledge, skills and attitude needed by the poor to access full time jobs in the formal sector.
(ii)Approach
- DDU-GKY has a number of features, important of which are:
- Shift in emphasis from training to career progression- In the skills sector, the emphasis traditionally has been on skilling. With the Special Projects for Skill development under SGSY, MoRD broke new ground by insisting on placement, which was further refined by defining placement as continuous work for three months with salary slip as evidence.
- Enable poor and marginalised to access benefits from growth - DDU-GKY is designed to equip unemployed youth from rural poor households with employable skills that enable them to secure employment in the formal sector. DDU-GKY projects are implemented in partnership with private sector, public sector and PIAs.
- Proactive approach to building partnerships- SGSY special projects for skill development was implemented through Public Private Partnerships (PPP). The experience of implementing the programme has helped in developing and improving the capabilities of a number of PIAs.
- Single State Project (SSP) to Annual Action Plans (AAP) – The learnings from implementing Multi- State Projects (MSP) and the experiences of initiatives taken by certain State Governments have shown that the involvement of State Governments in DDU-GKY is critical to its success. It is observed that when State Governments have their own skill development programme with a dedicated machinery that does tracking and monitoring of training, it has led to better quality outcomes – training, placement, retention and career progression. These States are in a better position to identify deserving poor candidates, assess local skill gaps, propose suitable skilling programmes, monitor training and placement and muster support for the trainees when they are most vulnerable i.e. in the first six months.
- North East- a priority- MoRD plans to launch a special scheme under DDU-GKY in collaboration with Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (DONER) for skilling projects specific to the needs, requirements and the special characteristics of States in the north east.
- Enhancing the Capacity of PIAs- The skilling capacity of training partners has to be augmented on a priority basis. Only then can DDU-GKY reach out to all those who need it, irrespective of geography and formal education. New training service providers need to be nurtured, and their capability developed.
