Ready to take on the world with DDUGKY.....

Ready to take on the world with DDUGKY....

Skilling, life-skills, soft skills are familiar words now whether in the field of education and employment. Apart from conventional education a lot of emphasis is now being laid on acquiring vocational eduaction or skills which will facilitate youth to get employed or become entrepreneurs.
While formal education still remains at the forefront with children wanting to be engineers, management experts or doctors,  the informal sector has transformed itself by leaps and bounds to open several avenues for the less blessed. These are those who are unable to complete their formal education due to various reasons or are drop-outs or are simply not interested in formal education.
Taking note of the huge demand for different set of skills, the Government of India has designed a special programme for skilling by setting up the National Skill Mission and State Skill Missions.
The Ministry of Rural Development working for empowerment of women through self help groups under the National Rural Livelihoods Mission also designed a special programme for skilling of rural youth under the Deendayal Upadhyay Grameen Kaushalya Yojana- DDUGKY.
This is essentially a programme with short term courses for three or six months or for a longer period of one year which skill youth through residential training, on job experience and placements.
Students from rural India are mobilised and trained through PIAs- Performance Implementation Agencies at their centres which have state of art facilities for acquiring skills in hospitality, voice BPO, bedside assiatant, retail business, electronic repair and 250 other trades.
The PIAs are selected through a very stringent process and have to follow standard opearting procedures to ensure highest standards are maintained in training as well as lodging, boarding and safety of students. DDUGKY has now become a benchmark for excellence in the skilling world.
While the scheme is reaping the fruits of its labour now, with over 1 lakh students trained and placed, a lot of effort has been put in designing the programme to ensure highest standards of quality are maintained in training and placements.
The government also endeavours to streamline the procedure and make it better.
It therefore took the support of Asian Development Bank and Ernst and Young to strategise methods for improving the implementation of DDUGKY. Funded by the JFPR, Japan Fund for Poverty Reduction, the SOPs were analysed and downsized to curtail procedural delays and facilitate training. Special emphasis was laid on developing soft skills and IT skills with a massive programme of Training of the trainers.
The quality of trainers and training is pivotal to ensure that students get trained in the best possible manner. 400 trainers were trained under the programme and they in turn trained over 8000 students mostly women as ADB is committed to gender equity and has a gender policy since 1988. They believe in gender mainstreaming for the larger benefit of the society.
The Japan Fund for Poverty Reduction works for the welfare of persons in low income groups and for the deprived women
It therefore developed effective IEC material to facilitate behavioural change and to spread the message and reach out to the poor. It analysed 6 key industries for successful skilling, brought down the number of documents and number of hours required for screening PIAs, speed up fund release as well as improve the MIS.
It also devised a very useful app, Kaushal Panji for easy registration of beneficiaries interested in getting skilled. 53,400 women were surveyed and 19,000 samples were analysed to understand the gender perspective and collate willingness of women to migrate for getting skilled.
DDUGKY's role in transforming lives of rural youth is clearly evident. The scheme has bolstered a rural girl working in Cafe Cofee Day of Mumbai enough to represent India as International brew master in Mexico.
It has brought smiles to millions of families and satisfaction to the authorities for designing this programme.
At the final workshop for strengthening capacities and processes for gender equality,  trainers and trainess shared their experience under the programme.
It was heartening to watch them speak reflecting self-pride and confidence.
Ms.Deepali Awasthi, from a rural village of Mathura is a trainer who has trained over 100 girls.
Ms. Poonam also from Mathura, after completion of training is now employed at a Vaango food chain.
My moments of glory came on seeing two confident girls from Maharashtra, bubbly and full of life.
Ms.Priya Raut is a trainer at Avon Facilities Management Services from Nagpur. She underwent the Training of trainers programme in English speaking and IT skills conducted by ADB. She was intorduced to a new software for English language which helped her improve her training skills. The interactive sessions made learning extremely interesting for the students also. The audio-visual medium had a positive impact and made them more attentive. She was thankful for this opportunity and has trained 250 girls. She felt that DDUGKY was enabling girls to achieve their desires. Being fully aided it helped the poorest. She also found girls to be better performers.
Ms. Vishakha Dhamgaye, is from a poor family from Nagpur. She feels that DDUGKY has changed her life and made her independent. She had completed her 12th standard and was at home helping her mother who is a daily wages worker, when she came to know of DDUGKY. She immediately grasped the opportunity, completed her training and is now working in Westside. She dreams of becoming a Store Manager.
There are many many more students like her whose dreams have come true thanks to DDUGKY.
The future holds great hope for services like health care, geriatic care, hospitality which are in huge demand. The secret lies in moving in tandem with prospective growth and strengthening these skills.
Along with DDUGKY are the RSETI's which are Rural training centres for self-employment are also transforming lives of rural youth. Jobs might become scarce but business and self-enterprises are booming.
RSETIs are an ideal ground for training in entrepreneurship as they focus on small enterprise. Maharashtra RSETI was awarded the second prize in 2016-17 for training over 2 lakh entrepreneurs.
The Government is committed to provide support in skilling through DDUGKY, RSETIs and many other programmes. It is for the rural youth to be ready, to work hard for achieving their dreams and to take on the world.....