BHUBANESWAR: The Odisha government has initiated the process to roll out the second phase of the Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana (DDU-GKY)-2.0 to provide skill development training to the rural youth and make them employable.
Officials from Panchayati Raj department said an Action Plan 2025 will be prepared for the purpose.
A two-day workshop was held in this regard on Thursday and Friday here.
Organised by the Union Ministry of Rural Development in collaboration with ORMAS, the workshop focused on the formulation of an action plan that empowers a maximum number of rural youths in the state to get employment.
Panchayati Raj and Rural Development minister Rabi Narayan Naik stressed repeating the success of the scheme in the state in phase II to extend benefits to a maximum number of youths and strengthen the social and economic vitality of rural Odisha.
Officials said since implementation of the DDU-GKY programme in 2014, more than two lakh youths have already received training of which around 1.16 lakh have been provided with employment opportunities in different sectors.
In July 2024, the state government had announced to impart skill training to at least 17,000 unemployed rural youth under DDU-GKY within a year.