In a bid to further reach out to rural youth in the country’s 24 most critical Left-Wing-Extremism-affected districts, the Centre on Friday introduced a placement-oriented skill-development scheme targeting 50,000 persons, mostly tribals.
Launching “Roshni”, Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh said at least 50 per cent of the candidates covered under the scheme would be women and extra efforts would be made to proactively cover Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs) on a priority basis.
Mr. Ramesh said Roshni would show a “new path” to the youths being targeted by the Maoists.
The programme entails providing beneficiaries aged between 18-35 years with requisite training for the trade or job chosen as per the Participatory Identification of Poor.
The launch of Roshni comes soon after the brutal Maoist attack on a Congress Convey in Chhattisgarh’s Bastar district in which nearly 16 people, including two senior Congress leaders, were killed.
Additionally, Mr. Ramesh said the employment programme would be on the lines of ‘Himayat’, being run in Jammu and Kashmir, and two pilot projects being run in Jharkhand’s west Singhbhum and Chhattisgarh’s Sukma districts.
The training will be imparted through public-private and public partnerships. Four training modules of durations ranging from three months to one year shall be taken up to meet the diverse needs of the youth, depending on their entry-level qualifications.
Placement-linked, market-driven, fully-residential skills training will be provided in fields such as tailoring, construction, mobile repairing, nursing and retail.
Placement assurance
“The training providers will ensure 75 per cent placement defined as continuous employment for three months at higher than minimum wages. Placements will be provided anywhere in India,” said Mr. Ramesh.
Several training strategies will be used for diverse groups of youths, ranging from school dropouts to those with college education.
“The training providers will ensure 75-per-cent placement defined as continuous employment for three months at higher than minimum wages. Placements will be provided anywhere in India,” he said.
The projects will be funded jointly by the Central and State governments in the ratio of 75:25.
Six districts each from Jharkhand and Odisha, five from Chhattisgarh, two from Bihar and one each from Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra have been chosen for the scheme, which will be implemented at a cost of Rs.100 crore over the next three years.
