 "Job, Hiring")
Union rural development minister Chaudhary Birender Singh today said almost 100 million rural youth were looking for employment opportunities beyond agriculture.
He said the youth in rural India was aspiring for jobs not only in traditional vocations, but seeking newer avenues.
"If we can hone them and impart skills training, they could be an asset not only to India but to the global job market as well," he said addressing media here on the sidelines of the fourth national seminar on 'Microfinance - Issues & Challenges'.
He mentioned that the US needed nearly 6,50,000 nurses, while there was sizeable demand for drivers in Australia. "Under the various central government schemes, we are also trying to give training in small trades."
The Centre runs National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM), supported partly by the World Bank. It aims at creating institutional framework to enable rural poor increase household income through sustainable livelihood enhancements and improved access to financial services. The state governments run their individual Missions attuned and integrated to NRLM.
Giving an example, he said the State Rural Livelihood Mission (SRLM) of Jammu and Kashmir nicknamed Umeed had helped in mainstreaming sections of people in the state as they slowly realised that development works would only help them integrate to the larger community.
Simultaneously, the Centre is working for the skills training under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGS) The government is targetting to skill 2 million people under MNREGS in the next two years, Singh added.
The seminar was organised by Bankers' Institute of Rural Development (BIRD), a training institute of National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD).
NABARD chairman Harsh Kumar Bhanwala informed against 500 self help groups (SHG) supported by the Bank in 1992, NABARD has now touched 7 million SHGs and 97 million poor households.
