Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday launched ‘Yuva’, a Delhi Police initiative aimed at imparting skills to street children and youth living in JJ Clusters.
The project has been launched in collaboration with the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).
In the first phase, 2,269 candidates have been selected to be trained in 26 skills across 36 centres.
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Counselling held
Delhi Police Special Commissioner Sanjay Baniwal said the candidates were selected on the basis of their counselling conducted by experts from the NSDC and skill training would be provided to them in accordance with their qualifications and interests.
The beneficiaries are mostly juveniles in conflict with law, school drop-outs who have allegedly indulged in violations of minor nature, victims of crimes who are in dire straits, or young members from those households where the sole breadwinner is in jail.
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Talking to The Hindu , Delhi Police Commissioner Amulya Patnaik said the aim of the initiative was to bring down street crimes by helping those who were vulnerable to taking up illegal routes to make money after failing to get jobs elsewhere.
Curtailing crime
“As per our analysis, over 95% of the accused in robbery and snatching cases are first-time offenders. We cannot rely solely on arrests; we need to stop them from taking up crime in the first place,” said Mr. Patnaik.