Samarth Scheme

One of the primitive industries established in India is the textile and apparel industry. From clothing fibers to apparel manufacturing, its entire value chain has a powerful presence within the country. It is the second biggest employment sector after agriculture. To fill the skill gap in the textile industry and promote its efforts initiated through the Special Package for Garments and Made-ups, the government approved the ‘Scheme for Capacity Building in Textile Sector’ (SCBTS).

The SCBTS was approved for the entire value chain of the textile industry except weaving and spinning in the organised sector. The SCBTS was launched with an outlay of Rs.1,300 crore for three years, i.e. from 2017-18 to 2019-20. The SCBTS is currently known by the name ‘Samarth’. The Samarth scheme signifies the broad objective of providing skill to the youth for sustainable and gainful employment in the textile sector.

Objectives of Samarth Scheme

• Providing demand-driven and placement oriented National Skills Qualifications Framework (NSQF) compliant skilling programmes that supplement and incentivise the textile industry’s efforts to create jobs in the organised textile and related sectors.
• To promote skill up-gradation and skilling in the traditional sectors of handicrafts, sericulture, handlooms and jute.
• To enable sustainable livelihood either by self-employment or wage employment to every section of the society across India.

Samarth Scheme Application Procedure

The interested applicants can apply for the Samarth scheme to undertake training and skilling programmes for better employment opportunities in the textile and apparel industry. The process to apply is as follows:

• Visit the official Samarth scheme website. 
• Click on the ‘Candidate Registration’ option on the right-hand corner of the home page.
• The ‘Candidate Enquiry Form’ will open. Fill in the details of name, date of birth, e-mail, mobile number, state, address, district, training center on the ‘Candidate Enquiry Form’ and click on the ‘Submit’ button for completing the online application process.

Trainees Under Samarth Scheme

The implementing agencies select and mobilise the applicants/trainees who have applied for this scheme. The implementing agencies select the trainees in a transparent manner by providing the opportunity to every willing person by keeping in mind the textile industry’s requirements and other stakeholders.

The preference while selecting the trainees is given to the marginalised social groups like SC/ST, women, minorities, BPL category persons, differently-abled persons and 115 aspirational districts notified by the NITI Aayog. 

Implementation of Samarth Scheme

The Samarth scheme targets to provide training to 10 lakh persons, out of which 9 lakh are from the organised sector, and 1 lakh are from the traditional sector. The overall framework for implementing the Samarth scheme, including the costing for capacity-building programmes, is aligned with the policy framework for skill development (NSQF, Common Norms, etc.) adopted by the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE). 

This scheme includes the Entry-level courses and Training of Trainers (ToT) programme. The list of courses offered under the Samarth scheme is given on the official website. This scheme adopts the following strategy:

• Aadhaar enabled a biometric attendance system with a minimum of 80% attendance for assessment.
• Training provided by certified trainers who have a Training of Trainers (ToT) Certification by the Resource Support Agency (RSA) / Sector Skill Councils (SSCs).
• CCTV recording for the whole of the assessment process and training programmes.
• Third-party assessment and certification by the assessment agencies empanelled by the RSA.
• Placement-linked skilling programme with the mandatory wage employment in the organised and traditional sector and post-placement tracking for one year.
• Random physical verification of the active training centres.
• Courses aligned with NSQF.
• Robust real-time scheme information and MIS published on the Ministry of Textiles website.
• Call centre. i.e. helpline set up for collecting feedback.
• Mobile app for the various stakeholders to ease out the implementation and monitoring mechanism.
• Public grievance redressal with a Grievance Redressal Officer from the Ministry of Textiles.
• Funding as per regular norms and common branding as per guidelines of the MSDE.
• Concessional credit is provided to the trainees under the Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana for self-employment.

Implementing Agencies Under Samarth Scheme

The following are the implementing agencies who will implement the skilling programmes under the Samarth scheme:

• Textile industry.
• Institutions or organisation of the Ministry of Textiles or State Governments having placement tie-ups and training infrastructure with the textile industry.
• Reputed training institutions, societies, NGOs, organisations, trusts, companies, startups and entrepreneurs active in the textile field and having placement tie-ups with the textile industry.