Abstract

India is home to one-fifth of the world’s youth and one of the fastest-growing economies in the world. The Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India started DDU-GKY on September 25, 2014. It is a training, skill-building, and job-placement Programme for rural youth from poor families. The present study analyses the growth of trained and placed participants benefited out of DDU-GKY particularly the women and the weaker section category (SC/ST/Minorities) from 2014-15 to 2021-22. The study relied on secondary data obtained from the Ministry of Rural Development for the beneficiary category of candidates belonging to women, SC, ST, and minority groups, who were placed during the year 2014-2015 to 2017-2018. At the national and overall percentage levels, the annual growth rate for two different variables was tabulated and compared. The Participants of DDU-GKY under the category of Women /SC /ST / Minorities received more training during the scheme’s early stages, particularly from 2014-15 to 2016-17. Training growth slowed over the next three years. It shows negative growth in the current year, 2021-22. The COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on project implementation agencies. Because of the pandemic’s restrictions, the training had to be adjusted. The study found that the participants who fall into the categories of SC, ST, and minorities benefit less from the training process than the women who take part in it. But when it comes to placement, not every woman who gets training is placed. The requirements of the programme stipulated that woman must constitute one third of the participants. However, the data revealed that the actual number of female participants is higher than stipulated level.

Keywords: DDU-GKY, Skill India, Skill Development, women, SC/ST community, Rural youth, india