For skills development of youth in coastal areas, the Ministry of Shipping signed an MoU with theMinistry of Rural Development in New Delhi today. The MoU is for convergence of the Ministry’ prestigious project Sagaramala and Ministry of Rural Development’s flagship programme Deen Dayal Upadhyay Grameen Kaushalya Yojana (DDU GKY) . The Minister of Shipping and Road Transport & Highways, Shri Nitin Gadkari and the Minister for Rural Development, Panchayati Raj, Drinking Water and Sanitation Shri Narendra Singh Tomar were present on the occasion. DDU-GKY is expected to bring in its skilling expertise to provide skilling for the coastal communities, thereby preparing them to take advantage of the job opportunities that are expected to come up in the maritime sector follwing port led development under Sagarmala. Speaking on this occasion, Shri Nitin Gadkari said that this MoU will meet the exact skill needs of industries in the port and maritime sector and provide the coastal communities right skills for better opportunities emanating from the large scale impact of Sagarmala projects. He said that with skill development there will be close involvement of the coastal communities in Sagarmala and will make them contributors in the economic development and will ensure inclusive growth of the coastal districts of the country. He said that the centre is planning to facilitate fisherman with mechanized trawlers that will allow them to fish till 30-40 Nautical Miles in international ocean. This will generate employment opportunities for youth in coastal areas, as fishing is a big industry, which involves processing, packaging and export of fish and other sea produce. He said that there is a need to develop tourism around lighthouses in coastal areas, as this will provide employment to rural youth in these areas.
On this occasion, the Minister for Rural Development, Shri Narendra Singh Tomar said that DDUGKU is the flagship programme of the ministry and after this MoU agreement, rural youth and women of coastal areas will be able to develop skills for Maritime, Shipping and Port Management. He said that under skill development pilot project, around 7,000 persons have been already been trained and out of this 600 people have been already got employment. The Coastal Communities are key stakeholders in the Sagarmala Programme and their skill development and livelihood is an important objective of the program. A budget of Rs.100 Cr. has been allocated under Sagarmala for coastal community development activities. Before execution, understanding the exact requirement is a key step and therefore, an on-ground survey for accurate understanding of skill needs of 21 coastal districts has been done so that the training programs can be aligned to the exact requirements. Along with the Skill gap studies, District Action Plans have been made in consultation with the State Governments and districts concerned and training will commence from May, 2017. Specific training needs have been identified for more than 60000 trainees in the next phase through more than 100+ skill projects.
The primary goal of the Skills and Livelihoods in Sagarmala is to meet the exact skill needs of industries in the port and maritime sector and provide the coastal communities right skills for better opportunities emanating from the large scale impact of Sagarmala projects.It is expected that the close involvement of the coastal communities in Sagarmala will make them contributors in the economic development and will ensure inclusive growth of the coastal districts of the country. DDU-GKY is currently being implemented in 28 states and has over 654 training centres in 522 projects, in partnership with over 261 training partners conducting training across 39 sectors, and over 329 job-roles. So far a total of 4.54 lakh candidates have been skilled and 2.31 lakh candidates provided jobs. In the first phase, skill training was undertaken in 22 districts in 5 states of A.P, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Odisha and Tamil Nadu with 23 Project Implementing. Out of a total planned target of 2130, training has commenced in respect of 1483, 935 trainees have been trained in 35 trades, 646 trainees have been placed and 548 are currently undergoing training. The next phase is expected to scale up the effort based on the learning from the past and be more refined and focussed on port and maritime sector. It will include all districts where skill gap studies and district action plans have been completed.