Over 4.90 Lakh Rural Youth from 27 States and 2 UTs placed in jobs through ‘DDU-GKY’ Rural Development Ministry initiative

Bhubaneswar: Deen Dayal Upadhyay Grameen Kaushalya Yojana (DDU-GKY), a part of the National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM) is a demand driven placement-linked skill training initiative of the Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD), Government of India, with the dual objectives of adding diversity to the incomes of rural poor families and catering to the career aspirations of rural youth.

Focus is on rural youth for imparting them skill training and providing them sustainable wage employment at or above the minimum wages with career progression. As on November 2019, over 9.5 lakh rural youth between of 18 and 35 years from ‘poorest of poor’ in 27 States and 2 UTs have been imparted skill training under this initiative. Of these, over 4.9 Lakh candidates have been placed in jobs (as on 16th Dec. 2019) under this programme.

Since its inception in September 2014, DDU-GKY has so far committed an investment of more than Rs. 5,600 crore, impacting rural youth across India through this unique skilling and placement programme. DDU-GKY is today implemented in 514 districts across 27 states and 2 UTs. It currently has over 1,282 projects being implemented by over 638 partners through more than 1,624 Training Centres, in more than 585 trades from 50 industry sectors.

Speaking about the success of DDU-GKY, Dr. W.R. Reddy IAS, Director General, NIRDPR, said, “As industrial revolution is bringing in a paradigm shift to the way of employment and livelihood opportunities have traditionally been looked upon, skilling of eligible rural youth need to be not only meaningful, sustainable and future-proof, but need to continuously move up the value chain in the economy. DDU-GKY with its focus on rural youth and industry connect is a great initiative in this regard.”

Over 180 million or 69% of the country’s youth population between the ages of 18 and 35 years, live in its rural areas. Of these, those in the bottom of the pyramid from poor families with no or marginal employment are nearly about 55 million.

DDU-GKY has also helped its candidates obtain International Placements. In the area of VLSI, there have been multiple placements with Samsung, South Korea, with pay packages as impressive as Rs. 17 lakh Per Annum. Similarly, candidates have been placed in numerous other countries in various profiles.

Some of the top brands have been constantly recruiting candidates from DDU-GKY for different profiles in logistics, sales, finance and operations include multinational firms such as Amazon, Samsung, Karvy, D-Mart, McDonalds, KFC besides Indian companies like Flipkart.

Highlighting the impact of DDU-GKY, Mr. K.V. Satyanarayana, Executive Director, DDUGKY, NIRDPR, said, “Today DDU-GKY is uniquely poised to not only provide the sustainable livelihood for rural poor people to enable them to lead a dignified life in the society, but also enables industry to get hold of skilled & productive resources in the various domains.”

In cases of natural calamities or emergency situations, DDU-GKY candidates have come out in large numbers to help the affected people and play a crucial role in assisting the government support systems for relief. Recent examples include DDU-GKY candidates helping in repairing power generators damaged during Cyclone Fani in Puri District; besides, in Kerala helped in the relief camps set up during the floods.

DDU-GKY is uniquely focused in skilling and placement of rural youth between the ages of 18 and 35 years from rural poor families. As a part of the Skill India campaign, it plays an instrumental role in supporting the social and economic programs of the government like the Make In India, Digital India, Smart Cities and Start-Up India, Stand-Up India campaigns.

The courses of DDU-GKY, are in sync with the needs of the industry. DDU-GKY covers numerous industry oriented specialized courses in the areas such as Beauty and Wellness, Agriculture, Healthcare, Food Processing, Mining, Capital goods, Construction, Logistics, Hydro Carbon, Telecom, Life sciences , Automotive, Security, Apparel, Retail, Tourism and Hospitality, Banking & Finance, Aero Space, Media –Entertainment, Gems & Jewellery, Chemical and Petrochemicals, among others.

Among the many skilling initiatives in the country, the aspects that make DDU-GKY unique include the focus on rural poor youth, standard operating procedure (SOPs), implementation across country under banners (apart from DDU-GKY) such as Himayat (in J&K and Ladakh), Roshni (in Left Wing Extremist districts), emphasis on placement of candidates, treating Training Providers as Partners, Inclusivity for SC/ST/Minority/Women / PwD/ candidates.

Working in Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode, it is a pioneering initiative in quality outcomes through endeavors such as transparent selection and on-boarding of training partners, predictability in processes and inspections through a framework of guidelines and standard operating procedures (SOPs), focus on ASK (Attitude, Skills and Knowledge) agenda.

As a Central Technical Support Agency, NIRDPR is fully committed to providing all support to the states and partners in the successful implementation of the project across India. Through it state based teams and expertise, NIRDPR has been continuously monitoring, providing hand-holding, building capacities of all the stakeholders concerned for the implementation of DDU-GKY programme across 15 states and 2 UTs as a Central Technical Support Agency (CTSA) of MoRD. Further, as a National Resource Organisation for DDU-GKY programme, NIRDPR has been responsible for building capacity of all stakeholders in the DDU-GKY programme.