Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana or DDU-GKY

Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana (DDU-GKY) was announced by the Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD) on 25 September 2014. This scheme is a part of the National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM). It has the objective of catering to the career aspirations of the rural youths and providing diversity to the incomes of rural poor families. This scheme aims at building skills of the rural youth for placing them in relatively higher wage employment sectors of the economy.

Over 69% or 180 million of the country’s youth population between the ages of 18 and 34 years are living in rural areas. Out of these, the bottom of the pyramid youth from poor families with no or marginal employment is about 55 million. This scheme is particularly focused on rural youth between the ages of 15 and 35 years who belong to poor families.
DDU-GKY is a placement-linked Skill Training Initiative which works in Public-Private Partnership (PPP) mode.

This scheme makes investments in projects proposed by its training partners, facilitates technical support and provides quality skill training to the poor rural youth.
DDUGKY has engagement with Industry heads through workshops and conferences. The industries are invited to be partners with DDU-GKY as Project Implementing Agency (PIA) and/or own a training batch for imparting long-term training for better placement outcomes.

Features of DDU-GKY

• DDU-GKY engages in supporting multiple partners to ensure success and maximise the investments made on time and resources.
• It partners with civil society organisations, the Government and Private organisations and educational institutions for obtaining the advantage of the strengths of all and achieving transformative change.
• It has partnerships with industries which give access to new technologies and job training.
• Transparency and accountability are achieved through the implementation of the Public Financial Management System, which acts as a channel for fund disbursals and audits.
• This scheme has employed a Geo-Tagged Time Stamped Biometric Attendance Record. This acts as a monitoring tool and also helps candidates to be familiar with modern technology.
• The provision of a tablet PC for every candidate at the training centre enables them to learn at their own pace.
• The presence of computer labs and e-Learning at training centres ensures that all the candidates have access to adequate learning opportunities and broader curricula.
• It ensures that all training partners invest in IT infrastructure and is working on sharing real-time performance data on a nation-wide network for creating a strong independent Placement Initiative.

Training Under DDU-GKY

DDU-GKY invests in skill training to make sure that the poor rural youth move out of poverty and achieve prosperity. Funds are invested by DDU-GKY to start advanced, modern and well-equipped training centres for providing private education and skill training. State Governments have a department or State Skill Missions through which they monitor and evaluate these training centres and projects.

In the training centres, candidates are entitled to free training with all the necessary books, study materials, tablet PC and uniforms. Free accommodation and food are provided in residential training centres. In the non-residential training centres, candidates will be reimbursed travel expenses and one meal for every completed day in training.

The training centres will help the candidates get biometric identification cards, insurance and a bank balance. The location of the training centres can be found on their website. The candidates can choose any sector out of the 52 identified industry sectors to get trained in. After placement in a job, DDU-GKY will pay a salary top-up every month for two to six months depending on where the candidate is placed. The reimbursement money and salary top-up are directly transferred to the bank account of the candidate.

Eligibility
Any poor rural youth between the ages of 15 and 35 is eligible under this scheme. Any unemployed youth, anyone who works in the labour field, who earns a daily wage doing odd jobs, anyone with even a little bit of schooling is eligible. This scheme mandates a minimum of 160 hours of training in English, soft skills and computer literacy. Training is provided as per industry standards in residential as well as non-residential well-equipped campuses with adequate technology.

Documents required for enrollment

The candidates need to produce the following Identification cards or certificates to get enrolled under the programme:

• Aadhaar Card or Election ID Card or Birth Certificate for proof of identity and age.
• BPL Card of the candidate or BPL Card of any household member of the candidate
• MGNREGA worker card of any member of the candidate’s household, with a minimum of 15 days of completed work.
• Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY) card of the candidate’s household.
• Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) or BPL PDS card of the candidate’s household.
• NRLM-Self Help Group identification or certificate for any member of the candidate’s household.
• SC/ST Certificate issued by a competent authority, if claiming reservation or relaxation in age limit.
• Disability Certificate issued by a Registered Medical Practitioner, if claiming reservation or relaxation in age limit.

Benefits to the candidates

• Completely free skill training at the Training Centre. There are no fees.
• No registration charges, no examination or certification charges and no placement charges.
• Provides training programs with a curriculum as recommended by NCVT (National Council for Vocational Training) or SSC (Sector Skills Council) of NSDC (National Skill Development Council).
• The Certificate of Training from NCTV and/or SSC is recognised by the government and most employers in the private sector, which helps to access jobs with a higher salary.
• Completely free food and accommodation in a residential training program.
• Reimbursement of travel and meal cost transferred directly to the candidate’s bank account.
• Free uniform, books and learning material.
• Free access to a computer at the computer lab with a working internet.
• Free access to a tablet PC at the training centre to use and learn.
• Job Interviews and placement opportunities at no cost and a job with a minimum salary of Rs. 6,000/- per month.

How to apply DDUGKY

The candidates can apply under DDU-GKY in any of the following ways:

• By getting enrolled with Gram Panchayat or Gram Rozgar Sewak, who will recommend the nearby Training Centre or its mobilisation staff to meet the candidate and offer counselling and guidance.
• By finding a nearby training centre and contact them directly.
• By finding a trade which the candidate wants to learn and the contact information of the training centre teaching the trade.
• By clicking on “Apply Now” and register on Kaushal Panjee Portal under “Candidate Registration”.

PIA Under DDU-GKY

DDU-GKY implements training and provides for placement of candidates through building partnerships with Project Implementation Agencies (PIAs), thereby aiding in poverty alleviation. The Training Partners or PIA can register with DDU-GKY through a dedicated Partner Registration process by filing a simple e-Form.

Any registered organisation except proprietorships or partnerships can apply to be a Training Partners. If an organisation is already registered with or works with National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) as a partner, it can apply directly under DDU-GKY.

At the time of application, a PIA should have a positive net worth in minimum two of the last three financial years and a turnover of minimum 25% of the size of the project cost being proposed.
DDU-GKY prefers the following partners:

• Champion Employers – Employers who can train and place 5,000 or more rural poor youth candidates in 2 years are eligible to partner with DDU-GKY as ‘Champion Employers’. During the tenure of the MoU, champion employees need to train and employ/place a minimum of 2,500 rural poor youth annually.
• Captive Employers – Businesses who can employ 500 or more candidates in their own organisation or one of their subsidiaries and have suitable in-house training facilities are eligible to partner with DDU-GKY as Captive Employers.
• Industry Internships – Organisations with a turnover of more than Rs.100 Crores per year and who can offer Industrial Internship opportunities for more than 500 candidates are eligible to be partners with DDU-GKY.
• Foreign placement – Organisations who can train and place more than 500 candidates overseas are eligible to be partners with DDU-GKY.
• Educational Institutes of high repute – Institutes with a score of more than 3.5 CGPA in NAAC grading or a community college recognised by AICTE or invested into by the UGC with the ability to train and place people in wage employment are eligible to be partners with DDU-GKY.

Special Initiatives

The following special schemes have been launched for benefiting the rural poor youth of all regions of the country-

• Himayat: It is a special scheme for the youth of both rural and urban areas of Jammu and Kashmir.
• Roshni: It is a special initiative for the rural youth of poor families in 27 Left-wing Extremist (LWE) districts across 9 states.
• Northeast Region: 10% of DDU-GKY programme funds are reserved for projects in North-East. The centre contributes 90% of training costs to provide opportunities for rural youth from the North-East Region.

Implementation of DDU-GKY

DDU-GKY works in Public-Private Partnership (PPP) mode with a three-tier implementation structure. The National Unit (NU) at the Ministry of Rural Development acts as the investor, technical support provider and policymaker.

The State Skill Missions monitor and manage the implementation, and the Training Partners or PIAs implement projects in specialist trades along with the compliance to the norms and standards set out by DDU-GKY.