Centre announces skill, placement support under MNREGA

New Delhi, August 17: Giving an impetus to its various skill development progs targeting youth, the Centre said one young member of each village household that has completed 100 days of work under the rural job scheme will be provided skill and placement support.

Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh made this announcement in the presence of Finance Minister P Chidambaram and Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia during the launch of the National Skill Certification and Monetary Reward Scheme in New Delhi on Friday.

Every year roughly about four and a half crore households get employment under MNREGA and young members of roughly eight to nine percent of families that have crossed 100 days of work will be eligible for government's new skill development cum placement activity.

"About eight per cent of the households at a national level have crossed the 100 day limit of employment under MNREGA and we have now decided is one youth of that household which has 100 days, which is obviously poor and very distressed, and we will provide the skill cum placement support to youth coming from that household," Ramesh said on Friday.

He said the number of households involved in MNREGA work is very very substantial and "this is going to provide further impetus to skill development" as objective of such programmes is to make rural youth eligible to enter the stream of migration.

Narrating the features of the skill development programmes coming under Ministry's flagship schemes Aajeevika, Ramesh said, "It is very much part of the national skill mission although it is not seen to be so."

"But it is an integral part of national skill mission. We are stressing not numbers, or targets but we are stressing quality and employment and sustainability of the employment," he said about Aajeevika skill development programmes like "Himayat" in Jammu and Kashmir and "Roshni" in Maoist-affected districts of Jharkhand, Odisha and Chhattisgarh.