NEW DELHI: The Rural Development Ministry’s two skill development schemes’ results have dropped since 2016-17, Minister of State for Rural Development Ram Kripal Yadav told Parliament on Thursday.
While the number of placed candidates under the Deen Dayal Upadhyay Grameen Kaushal Yojana (DDU-GKY) dropped from 1,47,883 in 2016-17 to 75,787 in 2017-18, the number of settled candidates under the rural Self Employment and Training Institutes (RSETI) saw a marginal drop from 3,64,536 to 2,50,097 in 2016-17 and 2017-18 respectively.
Ministry officials say that the poor results are due to a number of factors. “Our job is to develop the skill of rural youth and help them get placed but after getting them placed, youths drop out. We are trying to find out why they do not sustain in employment. Once we analyse the reasons, we will take corrective measures,” a ministry official said.
Recently, a ministry report had showed that there were around 18,000 villages across the country where there was not even a single skill development centre. Officials admit this to be one of the reasons for the drop in placement.
“Definitely, the lack of centres is a reason but setting up the skill development centre and making it operational is the duty of the state government. The ministry is planning to write to states and ask them to make the skill development centres operational at the earliest,” the official said.