The Ministry of Minority Affairs undertakes several schemes for upliftment of welfare and socio-economic empowerment of the six (6) notified minority communities namely Muslims, Sikhs, Buddhists, Christians, Jains and Parsis. A brief of the skill development schemes implemented by the Ministry is given below.

(i) Seekho aur Kamao Scheme

‘Seekho Aur Kamao’ scheme (Learn and Earn) is a placement-linked skill development scheme for minorities. It aims to upgrade the skills of minority youth (in the age group of 14-45 years) in various modern/ traditional skills depending upon their qualification, present economic trends, and market potential, that can earn them suitable employment or make them suitably skilled to take up self-employment. The scheme targets to earmark 33% of the total allocation for female beneficiaries.  The scheme aims to integrate the trained minority beneficiaries, socially and economically in the national mainstream.

(ii)Nai Manzil Scheme

‘Nai Manzil’ scheme launched in 2015 aims to engage with poor minority youth and help them obtain sustainable and gainful employment opportunities that can facilitate them to be integrated with the mainstream economic activities. It targets to mobilise youth from minority communities who are school dropouts and provide them with formal education and certification up to level 8th or 10th through National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) or other State open schooling systems. As part of the programme, it also intends to provide integrated skill training to the youth in market-driven skills in NSQF compliant skill courses.  The scheme targets school dropout, minority youth from BPL families in the age group of 17-35 years. At least 30% of the beneficiary seats are targeted to be earmarked for girl/ women candidates and 5% of the beneficiary seats to be earmarked for persons with disability belonging to minority community.

(iii) USTTAD scheme

‘USTTAD’ scheme (Upgrading the Skills and Training in Traditional Arts/Crafts for Development), launched in 2015 targets capacity building and upgrading of the traditional skills of master craftsmen/ artisans. The scheme works towards preservation of rich heritage of the traditional arts and crafts, and targets documentation of the identified traditional arts/crafts of minorities; setting up of standards for traditional skills; training of minority youths in various identified traditional arts/crafts through master craftsmen; and to facilitate development of national and international market linkages for artisans. The training component of the scheme was started from 2016-17. The scheme also organizes ‘Hunar Haat’. Hunar Haat is an effective platform where minority artisans/ craftsmen and culinary experts across the country are given the opportunity to showcase and market their finest handicraft and indigenous products. Hunar Haats have generated employment and employment opportunities for artisans.

Also, Maulana Azad Education Foundation (MAEF) implements Gharib Nawaz Employment Scheme, and the National Minorities Development and Finance Corporation (NMDFC) implements Kaushalse Kushalta Scheme and Mahila Samridhi Yojana.

The total number of individuals/ youths who have received the skill development training for skill development of minorities under the above mentioned scheme is 657802.  Despite the challenges faced due to outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic, the Ministry has been able to successfully complete the employment-oriented skill development training programmes.

Under the skill development scheme of Seekho aur Kamao, 85,650 women/ girls from minority groups have been trained for Modular Employable Skills (MES) courses since inception till 2016-17. From 2017-18 onwards, the Ministry adopted Common Norms completely with NSQF complaint courses. Also, under the Gharib Nawaz Employment Scheme of MAEF, 26,400 women have been trained for MES courses.           

381 Project Implementation Agencies (Institutions/ Societies/ Organisations/ NGOs) have been working with skill development schemes of the Ministry.

This information was given by the Union Minister for Minority Affairs Shri Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi in a written reply in the Lok Sabha today.

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