The Central government is planning to establish 10,000 Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) in rural areas across the country for imparting technical training to the rural youth.
Union Minister of State for Planning V. Narayanasamy announced this while inaugurating the first national convention of rural institutes, organized by the National Council of Rural Institutes, here today.
“We have opened the floodgates for foreign investment in the education sector. Our thrust is on expanding the educational infrastructure in the rural areas by opening more institutes and universities,” the minister said.
He said plans were afoot to set up one rural university in each backward and tribal clusters across the country. Besides, 25,000 schools would be set up in rural areas under the public-private partnership mode.
The ambitious Bharat Nirman programme launched by the Government of India with an outlay of Rs. One lakh crore has helped in containing migration of rural people to urban areas to a certain extent, with creation of better infrastructure facilities in villages.
“With emphasis on rural education and health care apart from infrastructure development, people in rural areas could feel they are better off. We can stop migration through such efforts,” Mr. Narayanasamy pointed out.
National Council of Rural Institutes chairman S V Prabhath, and former director of IIT-Madras P.V. Indiresan were present.
