Govt laying special thrust on youth skilling, self-employment: Sinha

Jammu, Nov 15: Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha Tuesday chaired the 2nd Governing Body Meeting of Mission Youth, at the Civil Secretariat.
On the occasion, the Lt Governor approved various Schemes & Plans focusing on the thrust areas including: Targeted implementation of existent Livelihood Generation Programmes; Establishment of Residential Coaching Institutions for Competitive Examinations & professional Courses; Establishment & Operationalization of District Youth Centers in all 20 Districts of J&K; Education, Career Counseling & Market-driven Skill Development Programmes; Recreation, Social Engagement & Sports; Youth Innovation Promotion Programmes; besides 3600 Youth Indexing of Three Million Youth.
Pertinently, Mission Youth is an ambitious programme of UT administration aimed to positively engage youth in socio-economic development of J&K through a multi-pronged strategy involving all necessary systematic interventions particularly in the areas of Skill Development, Livelihood generation, Education, Recreation and Sports.
The Lt Governor also announced reservation of 10% seats under ‘PARVAAZ’ initiative for the children of armed forces personnel who attained martyrdom in the line of duty in J&K and those from poor families. The ‘PARVAAZ’ initiative aims to fully assist young boys and girls to get free coaching for IAS, JKAS, NEET & JEE examinations. Mission Youth is focusing on educational development of youth through Super 75, SuperB 75, Navparivartan and University Collaboration like Initiatives.
The Lt Governor observed that the UT administration is laying special thrust on youth skilling & self-employment in Rural areas with targeted schemes to drive a socio-economic transformation.
During review of existing schemes, the Lt Governor issued instructions for impact assessment of initiatives and called upon stakeholders for exploring all avenues for enhanced corporate engagement in Youth empowerment and skilling programmes/schemes.
The Lt Governor also instructed the officials to expand MUMKIN scheme in order to cover youth from every panchayat of UT.
Meanwhile, Dr Shahid Iqbal Choudhary, CEO, Mission Youth, J&K, briefed the chair about the deliverables achieved under customized livelihood generation schemes including Mumkin, Tejeswini, Spurring Entrepreneurship, Rise Together, Avsar, Tourist Village Network Development and Home Stay Development Program.
It was informed that more than 30,000 youth, including more than 12000 girls, have been provided with direct livelihood means during 2021-22.
At present, Mission Youth has also partnered with reputed institutions/ organizations of the country including BSE Institute, ICICI Foundation, Ashok Leyland, Wipro etc. with an aim to facilitate skilling of youth in high employability potential sectors like BFSI, Robotics, Artificial intelligence, etc. and more than 10000 young boys and girls were provided with market-driven skill development trainings during 2021-22.
Highlighting the achievements of Mission youth, the CEO informed that under Mumkin scheme, during FY 2021-22, 3651 vehicles were provided to youth for self-employment against the target of 2022 vehicles. Under Tajeswini, about 2443 Young girls were provided assistance under the program during FY 2021-22 against the target of 2022.
More than 11725 youth, including 5237 girls were provided with customized market driven trainings. 910 Candidates, including 251 Girls, are being provided with necessary training to qualify the recruitment process for joining Armed Forces as Agni Veers, he added.
Rajeev Rai Bhatnagar, Advisor to Lt Governor; Dr Arun Kumar Mehta, Chief Secretary; Atal Dulloo Additional Chief Secretary, Agriculture production department; RK Goyal, Additional Chief Secretary, Home Department; Dheeraj Gupta Principal Secretary to the Government, H&UDD; Sarita Chauhan, Commissioner/Secretary to the Government, Labour and Employment Department, other members of the Governing Body; Administrative Secretaries; HoDs and concerned senior officials attended the meeting, in person and through virtual mode.