The Ministry of Rural Development has changed what counts as a successful placement under the Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana (DDU-GKY), which completes 12 years in 2026. The DDU-GKY 2.0 Guidelines, notified in May 2025, raise the minimum placement duration from three to six months. They also add 12 months of post-placement tracking, migration support and end-to-end digital monitoring.
The scheme was launched on 25 September 2014 under the National Rural Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NRLM). It gives placement-linked skill training to rural youth aged 15-35 years from poor, marginalised and vulnerable households. Coverage is mandated for SC/ST communities (50%), women (33%) and persons with disabilities (5%). The Union Budget 2026-27 allocated ₹750 crore to it.
Earlier, placement meant continuous employment for at least three months. The minimum is now six months, continuous or non-continuous, and covers wage, self-employment and gig employment. The 12-month tracking period is meant to support this.
The 576-hour minimum training requirement is retained. A three-month course has 396 hours of domain training and 180 hours of mandatory non-domain training. The non-domain part is now standardised: English Communication (60 hours), Employability and Life Skills (60 hours), Computer and Digital Literacy (30 hours) and Entrepreneurship (30 hours).
State Rural Livelihood Missions (SRLMs) organise Job Melas at block and Gram Panchayat levels, with youth registration and counselling, employer verification and one-year tracking of placement outcomes through Kaushal Panjee. Funding of up to ₹50,000 per Gram Panchayat-level fair and ₹1 lakh per block-level fair is available, subject to placement of 100 and 200 candidates respectively.
Many trained candidates migrate for work, so SRLMs set up Migration Support Centres in areas with a high concentration of placed candidates, in both home and destination states. The centres offer accommodation assistance, counselling and placement support, and also facilitate alumni networking and employer engagement. Annual funding per centre has risen from ₹10 lakh to as much as ₹30 lakh.
The scheme has used geo-tagged, time-stamped biometric attendance, computer labs and e-learning since inception. The 2.0 version adds a single digital platform covering onboarding of Project Implementing Agencies (PIAs), project evaluation, candidate management, assessment, finance and placement tracking. It brings real-time dashboards, a public candidate portal to search training and view PIA performance ratings, face-authenticated attendance, digital assessments, and integration with the Skill India Digital Hub for course validation.
Roshni addresses skill needs in Left-Wing Extremism-affected districts notified by the Ministry of Home Affairs, with residential training and 40% coverage for women. It has been extended to Aspirational Districts. Himayat covers rural and urban youth in Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh, supports wage, self and gig employment, and is 100% centrally funded. Ten per cent of the total allocation is earmarked for the North-Eastern States, and PIAs working in hard-to-reach areas get a Special Area Allowance of an additional 10% of the base training cost per candidate.
In 2025-26, Goa became the first State to create batches under 2.0. Andhra Pradesh began training over 12,000 candidates within three months, and Jammu & Kashmir allocated 100% of its targets and started training for 91% of allocated candidates.
The scheme runs across 31 States and Union Territories through 749 approved projects, 760 active training centres and over 455 PIAs. Since 2014-15, over 18.47 lakh candidates have been trained across 36 sectors, and over 12.43 lakh placed. Over 9.71 lakh women have been trained and over 6.34 lakh placed.
The ministry cited individual cases. Chandan Shah of Bihar, trained as an Assistant Electrician, first earned ₹10,500 a month in Baddi and then moved to Dubai as an electrician earning ₹35,000 a month. Rupali Hasda of Assam worked as a sewing machine operator in Tiruppur, then invested ₹50,000 in a sewing and cutting centre at home, employing one young girl, with annual income of about ₹1.10 lakh.
India's youth population is projected to reach nearly 345 million by 2036. Alongside DDU-GKY, Rural Self-Employment Training Institutes (RSETIs) give free residential training to rural unemployed youth aged 18-50 years, followed by handholding support. There are 647 RSETIs across 634 districts in 33 States/UTs. Since 2009 they have trained 63.47 lakh candidates, of whom 45.60 lakh have been settled. Around 94% of those settled set up their own ventures and about 6% found wage employment.
With reference to the DDU-GKY 2.0 Guidelines, consider the following statements:
Which of the statements given above are correct?
Consider the following pairs:
Component / Initiative : Feature
How many of the pairs given above are correctly matched?
Match List-I with List-II and select the answer using the code given below the Lists:
| List-I (Item) | List-II (Figure in the article) |
|---|---|
| A. Minimum training requirement under DDU-GKY | 1. 647 |
| B. Domain training hours in a three-month course | 2. 576 hours |
| C. Annual funding per Migration Support Centre, up to | 3. 396 hours |
| D. Number of RSETIs | 4. ₹30 lakh |
