The shipping ministry today inked a pact with the rural development ministry for skill development of youth in coastal areas.
"The MoU is for convergence of the Ministry' prestigious project Sagaramala and Ministry of Rural Development's flagship programme Deen Dayal Upadhyay Grameen Kaushalya Yojana (DDU GKY)," Ministry of Shipping said in a statement.
DDU-GKY is expected to bring in skilling expertise to provide skilling for the coastal communities, thereby preparing them to take advantage of the job opportunities that are expected to come up in the maritime sector, following port led development under Sagarmala.
Speaking on the occasion, Road Transport, Highways and Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari said this MoU will meet the exact skill needs of industries in the port and maritime sector and provide the coastal communities right skills for better opportunities emanating from the large scale impact of Sagarmala projects.
He said that with skill development, there will be close involvement of the coastal communities in Sagarmala and will make them contributors in the economic development and will ensure inclusive growth of the coastal districts of the country.
The minister also said that the Centre is planning to facilitate fisherman with mechanised trawlers that will allow them to fish till 30-40 Nautical Miles in international ocean.
This will generate employment opportunities for youth in coastal areas, as fishing is a big industry, which involves processing, packaging and export of fish and other sea produce.
There is a need to develop tourism around lighthouses in coastal areas as this will provide employment to rural youth in these areas, Gadkari said.
Minister for Rural Development Narendra Singh Tomar said that DDU GKU is the flagship programme of the ministry and after this MoU agreement, rural youth and women of coastal areas will be able to develop skills for maritime, shipping and port management.
Tomar said that under skill development pilot project, around 7,000 persons have been already been trained and out of this 600 people have been already got employment.
The coastal communities are key stakeholders in the Sagarmala Programme and their skill development and livelihood is an important objective of the programme.
A budget of Rs 100 crore has been allocated under Sagarmala for coastal community development activities.
"Before execution, understanding the exact requirement is a key step and therefore, an on-ground survey for accurate understanding of skill needs of 21 coastal districts has been done so that the training programmes can be aligned to the exact requirements," the statement said.
Along with the skill gap studies, District Action Plans have been made in consultation with the state governments and districts concerned and training will commence from May, 2017. Specific training needs have been identified for more than 6,0000 trainees in the next phase through more than 100 skill projects.
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