Since the Union government launched its flagship rural skilling programme in 2014, more than 1.8 million rural youth have been trained under it, but nearly one in three did not secure a reported placement, according to a parliamentary standing committee report tabled on Tuesday.
Political Context
The revamped scheme doubled the minimum period for a job to qualify as a placement from three months to six months. Experts, however, cautioned against assuming that skills training alone determines employment outcomes. “The supply of employment opportunities is independent of the supply of skills.
The Standing Committee on Rural Development and Panchayati Raj, headed by Congress MP Saptagiri Sankar Ulaka, questioned the Ministry of Rural Development on why only 1.2 million of the 1.8 million candidates trained under the Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana (DDU-GKY) had been placed in employment. The ministry told the committee that the overall placement rate of about 65% varied significantly across states and argued that the headline numbers did not capture the full impact of the programme. The government also attributed part of the apparent decline to changes introduced under DDU-GKY 2.0, which came into effect in April 2025.
“Unemployment may not be because of lack of skills,” said Ajay Gudavarthy, associate professor of political science at the Centre for Political Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University. “The data suggests that the scheme has been successful in bringing women into training, but that success is not translating into employment at the same rate,” said Harshil Sharma, a labour economics and public policy expert.
