With the Jammu and Kashmir government unveiling the Mission Youth Skill Development calendar here recently, the officials on Monday said that the rolling out of the skill road map would bolster the economic and livelihood concerns of thousands of youth in Jammu and Kashmir.
“Mission Youth in collaboration with Universities and training institutes of national repute, are inviting youth for 98 skill development courses; consistent with future opportunities globally,” CEO, Jammu Kashmir Mission Youth, DrShahid Iqbal Choudhary, told Greater Kashmir.
He said that the government under Annual Action Plan has approved the annual budget and calendar for the Mission Youth. He said that the mission and strategy was to focus on aspirations of youth from smaller towns and villages.
He informed that as many as over 10,000 youths are being targeted to be trained under a total of 98 programmes and certified courses, coupled with other initiatives of Youth Engagement & empowerment for the future job skills in a post-Covid world. “These advanced programmes will be conducted in partnership with various corporate houses, universities, and NGOs,” he said.
‘Skilled Workforce’
The MD said that the government was laying special focus on bridging the gap between supply & demand of skilled workforce in the job industry and to create a strong environment for professionals and technical skill development in Jammu and Kashmir.
He said that prominent high employability potential sectors include Banking & Financial Services, Oxy Skills, Fashion & Designing, Cyber Security, Web Designing, Robotics and Artificial intelligence would be covered under the Endeavour to Empower initiative of Mission Youth during this fiscal.
Mission Youth has also introduced soft skills training for Youth of J&K to professionally equip them with proficient soft skills to meet the challenges of the modern job industry, added the Lt Governor.
Pertinently, the Governing Body of Mission Youth has approved a budgetary component of Rs 9.0 cr for skilling initiatives in J&K.
“The talented youth from rural areas have potential to become the driving force behind Jammu & Kashmir’s economic growth,” he said. “Jammu & Kashmir Government has conceived a series of activities under Mission Youth aimed to provide a vibrant medium for youth engagement,” he said.
‘Women-oriented schemes’
Empowering women socially and economically is our prime mission, remarked DrShahid Iqbal Choudhary. He said that Jammu and Kashmir Mission Youth has also notified the ambitious Tejaswini Scheme for implementation across Jammu and Kashmir. He said that the Mission Youth has set a target to cover 2000 women entrepreneurs under the scheme during the current financial year. A budgetary component of Rs. 12 crore has been earmarked by Mission Youth on account of government subsidy for the scheme for the current financial year. The scheme has the distinction of being the first of its kind under which repayment of financial assistance will be interest free. It has been specifically modeled to ensure that businesses set up by these young women turn into viable and flourishing enterprises.
According to officials, the scheme launched by Lieutenant Governor, Manoj Sinha, in June, 2021 is a start-up funding programme for adolescents and young women of Jammu and Kashmir making them empowered and self-dependent through their own business ventures.
The broad aim of the scheme is to provide financial assistance to the young women of 18 to 35 years of age for setting up gainful self-employment ventures, suited to their skills, training, aptitude and local conditions. Under the scheme, female entrepreneurs shall be facilitated to avail financial assistance under Mudra from J&K Bank to the extent of Rs 5.00 lakh. Mission Youth, J&K shall provide an amount of Rs. 50,000 or 10% of project cost as subsidy. Besides, the interest component of the loan shall also be sponsored by Mission Youth as a special incentive and repayment of loan will technically be interest free for the young female entrepreneurs who apply for assistance under the scheme.
The scheme intends to provide assistance to all eligible young women who are domiciles of J&K and have a qualification of matriculation and above. It will also cater to enterprises where women entrepreneurs hold not less than 50% of financial holding besides providing assistance to set up women centric businesses and micro start-ups. In view of low participation of women in various entrepreneurial and livelihood generation activities, Mission Youth has conceptualized this scheme for young women of J&K to uplift the status of women in the society.
‘Tribal Outreach’
The CEO said that during his visits to tribal areas he has been given a lot of feedback about revamping the ground situation for the tribal population. “Transhumance support planning: I met the target groups at a dozen highland pastures on Bungus -Drangyari axis in Kupwara recently. Education, Shelter, FRA, livelihood among several concerns discussed for collective interventions are in offing,” DrChoudhary said.