Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship today organised an event in the national capital in connection with the ongoing celebration of International Women’s Day – 2020. Various institutes and bodies under the Ministry including ITIs, Pradhan MantriKaushalKendras and Jan ShikshanSansthans are also organising various events at various places today. In the event at New Delhi, winners of various competitions in such institutes were felicitated by Minister of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Dr.MahendraNath Pandey. A number of women, who have benefitted from Government’s variousskill and entrepreneurship programmes, narrated their stories as to how they gained confidence and attained financial stability in their lives, due to these training programmes.Lauding women achievers empowered by programs and initiatives of the Skill India mission, Minister Dr.MahendraNath Pandey congratulated women for their efforts and achievements. He said that India has a long tradition of respecting women and giving them due prominence in all activities of life. He said the motivational talks given by the young women entrepreneurstoday would inspire women to move ahead in the life. He thanked the Prime Minister for starting a new Ministry for Skill Development and Empowerment through which a new eco-system could be developed. He said that women are not only succeeding at the national level but have also brought laurels to the country by winning medals at the Kazan World’s Skill Competition. He said that over 73 lakh people have been trained under Pradhan MantriKaushalVikasYojana (PMKVY) in last 4 years out of which 40% are women. In Jan ShikshanSansthans, the number is above 90%. Dr. Pandey said that there is more scope of increasing the number of women in skill training programmes. Dr. Pandey announced that the Government is planning to bring a new ambitious scheme which will provide world level skills and create a skilled force in the country.
Dr Pandey said that training for women is not being confined only to the traditional fields but also the new age areas required by Industry-4.0. He said that Government is fully committed to the women empowerment and the action taken by it under the leadership of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi like Swachh Bharat, Ayushman Bharat, Jan Dhan Scheme, Prime Minister UjjwalaYojana, have pre-dominantly benefitted the women.Talking about Corona Virus i.e. COVID-19 issue,Dr. Pandey appealed to women to play an important role in spreading the awareness and taking suitable precautions.Earlier in his inaugural address, Secretary, Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Shri Praveen Kumar said that nearly 27% of the working force in the country is women though they constitute about 50% of the population. The number should go up. He said that Government is providing 30% reservation for women in ITIs and 18 out of 33 national skill training institutes are exclusively for women. A lot of attention has been paid on upgrading skills of women and the results are quite visible. The Secretary said the Government is taking due care in providing facilities for enabling women to undertake skill upgradation which include providing transport, crèche, women trainers, flexible timings and other infrastructure.A large number of women entrepreneurs and those who have undertaken training from various institutes participated in today’s programme. Senior officials of the Ministry including Additional Secretary, Ministry of Skill Development and EntrepreneurshipMs. JuthikaPatankar, NSDC Chairman Dr. Manish Kumar, Ms. Vinita Aggarwal, Ms. NeelamShami Rao, Ms. AnuradhaVemuri and Shri K.C. Gupta also took part in the event.