Educational and Economic Empowerment Through Skill Development: Dr.Najma Heptulla
For 2016-17, the Ministry of Minority Affairs has prioritized its focus areas in tune with the National priority for educational and economic empowerment through Skill Development. Dr. Najma Heptulla, the Union Minister for Minority Affairs said that almost the 50% of the Budget of would go for educational empowerment of minorities being a critical need for their development. Further, the Ministry has made provisions to make Maulana Azad National Fellowship demand driven subject to eligibility.The Minister said the Central Government has again increased the Budgetary Outlay in respect of Ministry of Minority Affairs from Rs. 3712.78 Crore in 2015-16 to Rs. 3800 Crore for 2016-17. The increase is of about Rs. 87 Crore for 2016-17.
She said in addition to these Rs. 3800 Crore the Central Government also channelizes minimum 15% financial resources and physical targets from other flagship schemes of various Ministries/Departments under Prime Minister's New 15 Point Programme for welfare & development of Minorities namely, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan, National Rural Livelihood Mission, National Urban Livelihood Mission, National Rural Drinking Water Programme, Integrated Child Development Scheme etc. Under these schemes, the flow of funds would go beyond Rs. 10,000 Crore for minorities. In addition, under Priority Sector Lending, the flow of funds for loans to minorities has reached to the level of Rs. 2,76,000 Crore.
The other issues highlighted by the Minister are-
She said Central Government is committed to development of minorities in the Country under the guiding principle of Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikaas. Ministry of Minority Affairs, Government of India, has adopted a multi-pronged strategy for development of minority communities with focus on educational empowerment; economic empowerment; infrastructure development; fulfilling special needs; and strengthening of minority institutions. The welfare and development schemes of the Ministry focus on poor and deprived sections of the minorities.
During 2016-17, the Ministry aims to disburse scholarships to about 90 lakh minority students through National Scholarship Portal (NSP) in Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) mode in their bank accounts.
In conformity with Government's priority for Skill India and Make in India and to improve the workers' participation rate of minorities in the economy of the country, the outlay for Skill Development of minorities have been enhanced from Rs. 209.45 Crore in 2015-16 to Rs. 385 Crore for 2016-17, which includes allocation of Rs. 155 Crore to the new scheme of Nai Manzil, an integrated educational and livelihood initiative. For Skill Development, Ministry has started new programmes namely, USTTAD and Nai Manzil in 2015-16. The Ministry also established a special purpose vehicle called Maulana Azad National Academy for Skills (MANAS) in 2014-15 to address all skill development needs of minority communities and establish linkages with concessional credit to Skill Development to provide sustainable livelihood to Minority Communities with primary focus on self-employment and entrepreneurship. The skill development initiative for minorities Seekho aur Kamao (Learn & Earn), has been strengthened and expanded. Ministry aims to train about 1,40,000 minority youths under these schemes in 2016-17.
The new scheme 'Nai Manzil' which was launched on 8th August, 2015, will benefit the minority youths who do not have a formal school leaving certificate, i.e., those in the category of school-dropouts or educated in the community education institutions like the Madarsas, with a view to enabling them to seek better employment in the organized sector and thus to equip them for better lives. This scheme will open a gateway of opportunities for Madarsa students as well. The scheme has been approved with the cost of Rs. 650 Crore (US$ 100 million) for five years. 50% funding has to come from the World Bank. The World Bank has approved the funding of US$ 50 million. This is for the first time that World Bank has come forward to support a programme for welfare of minority communities in India. For 2016-17, Rs. 155 Crore have been allocated for the training of 25,000 minority youths under the scheme.
Another new ambitious initiative of the Government, USTTAD (Upgrading the Skills and Training in Traditional Arts/ Crafts for Development) was launched on 14th May, 2015 at Varanasi (U.P.). The scheme aims at capacity building and updating the traditional skills of master craftsmen and artisans. The scheme will also set standards for traditional skills. The trained master craftsmen/artisan will train the minority youths in various specific traditional arts/crafts. Ministry has signed a MoU with an E-commerce portal shopclues.com for facilitating the market linkages of crafts. Ministry has engaged National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT), National Institute of Design (NID) and Indian Institute of Packaging (IIP) to work in various clusters for design intervention; product range development; packaging; exhibitions, fashion shows and publicity; tying up with e-marketing portals to enhance sales; and brand building. During 2016-17, work will start in 32 clusters associated with traditional arts and crafts of minorities.
Further, about 30% of the Budget would go for Jan Vikas Karyakram under Multi-sectoral Development Programme (MsDP) to meet the infrastructural requirements in minority concentration areas. It is an area development programme. It will be made more effective and focused on the targeted minorities, by analyzing the latest census data of 2011. The focus would shift from smaller projects to big projects in order to create infrastructure for students, working women, polytechnics etc.
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