33,716 rural youth trained under DDUGKY in FY21: Giriraj Singh informs Lok Sabha

The scheme’s target is to train and get jobs for 28,82,677 rural youth by March 2022. (Representative image)

Giriraj Singh, the new minister for Ministry of Rural Development on July 27 informed the Lok Sabha that 33,716 rural youth were trained under the Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana (DDU-GKY).

The number of youth trained fell 85.85 percent to 33,716 in FY21 from about 2.38 lakh a year earlier, according to data shared by the Minister.

Meanwhile, placements also dropped 67.02 percent to 49,528 from about 1.50 lakh in FY20.

The number of youth trained and placed dropped last year even though rural areas were flooded with workers as people returned to their villages due to lockdowns imposed to curb the spread of COVID-19.

Odisha has placed the highest number of youth at 1,53,543 , followed by Andhra Pradesh (72,461 ), Tamil Nadu (45929 ) and Telangana (45,429 ) and Jammu & Kashmir (38,990) since the launch of the scheme as per the data released by the minister.

The highest number of trained youth also come from Odisha at 1,83,260, followed by Uttar Pradesh (1,25,882 ), Jammu & Kashmir (59,065 ) and Rajasthan (57,504 ).

Since the inception of the scheme in 2014, so far 10.89 lakh youth have been trained and 7.03 lakh candidates have been placed.

The scheme’s target is to train and get jobs for 28,82,677 rural youth by March 2022.

DDU-GKY is a placement-linked skill development programme that the Ministry of Rural Development started in September 2014. It is a part of the National Rural Livelihood Mission offering placements to the rural youth.

Rural youth in the age group of 15-35 years are covered under this scheme.

For rural inclusion, DDU-GKY provides mandatory coverage to socially disadvantaged groups - SC/ST 50 percent, women 33 percent, minorities 15 percent, and people with different abilities about 3 percent.

In the current fiscal (FY22), about 2,691 rural youth have been trained and 11,015 have been placed, the rural development minister informed.