Rajasthan is the first State in India to establish a Mission on Livelihoods. In order to address the challenges of unemployment and ensuring gainful and sustainable employment to the youth of the state, Hon’ble Chief Minister created Rajasthan Mission on Livelihood (RMoL) in September 2004. The objective of creation of RMoL was to formulate appropriate and innovative strategies to promote and facilitate large scale livelihoods for the poor and vulnerable people of the state. Understanding the importance of skill development as a vehicle for enhancing employability of working population, RMoL was rechristened as Rajasthan Mission on Skill and Livelihoods in 2009-10.
RSLDC was incorporated as Section 25 Company, a Not for Profit company, on 17th August, 2010 with the Chief Secretary as the Chairman of the Company. As part of its major action, it established skill Training mechanism by involving more than 300 partner agencies to execute the training program across the State. In its journey of 7 years it has trained around 85,000 persons/youth by offering 97 courses in 34 sectors.
RSLDC (Rajasthan Skill and Livelihoods Development Corporation)
Rajasthan was the first State in India to establish the Mission on Livelihoods, in September 2004, under the chairmanship of the Hon’ble Chief Minister in order to address the challenges of unemployment and ensuring gainful and sustainable employment. The objective of creation of RMoL was to formulate appropriate and innovative strategies to promote and facilitate large scale livelihoods for the poor and vulnerable people. In view of the importance of the skill development for enhancing employability of working population, RMoL was renamed as Rajasthan Mission on Skill and Livelihoods, by adding the word skill in 2009-10, to provide further impetus to the Skill Trainings. The Mission was incorporated as Section 25 Company (Not for Profit) on 17th August, 2010 and the Chief Secretary was appointed as the Chairman of RMoL as the Company. As part of its major action, it established the skill Training mechanism by involving more than 300 partner agencies to execute the training programme across the State. In a journey of 7 years it has trained around 85,000 persons/youth by offering 97 courses in 34 sectors. Yet the State training requirements to tackle the unemployment issue and enhancing employability of youth have been very high. Designing livelihood promotion
Horticulture Improvement Programme In collaboration with Department of Horticulture and State Agriculture Universities, training on improved horticultural practices was provided to 6000 farmers and improved varieties of horticultural plant distributed to them. The programme was carried in districts where program of ‘National Horticulture Mission’ was not in place. About RSTP (Regular Skill Training Programme)
Regular Skill Training Programmes (RSTP) is sponsored by Rajasthan Skill and Livelihoods Development Corporation (RSLDC).RSTP generate short term training programmes which are concerned for skill development in Trainees.
The major activities that have been taken up by RSLDC include:
- Establishing skill development centres in different parts of the state with the help of government agencies and private training partners.
- Connecting the youth either to placement or self-employment once skill training has been given.
- Analysing the skill demand and supply gaps by having constant interactions with industries and working for those skills which are going to be in high demand in the future.
- RSLDC works as a centralised nodal agency. If any other department wants to implement some skill training programmes, they don’t need to set up their own infrastructure. They can transfer their budget to RSLDC and the corporation can arrange training programmes according to the objectives of that department.
RSLDC has decided to go for some innovative schemes and recently a scheme has been launched for college students. Could you kindly elaborate on this scheme?
The main target group of our four schemes, ELSTP, RSTP, DDUGKY, and PMKVY 2.0 was mainly youths who are school dropouts, who have some skills but they have to be further strengthened. Or the youths from rural and urban areas who are not able to get some glorified placement so that they can fulfil their financial obligations to the family. But it was found that there is a segment that has been completely left out, which are college students. In Rajasthan, there are more than 300 government colleges and lakhs of students are studying there. But it was found that after doing BA, B.Com, B.Sc., or BBA, the graduates are not considered employable as they have some academic knowledge but they lack industrial knowledge. To fulfil this gap, College Education Commissionerate has come up in collaboration with RSLDC to launch the Mukhya Mantri Yuva Kaushal Yojana (MMYKY).
The scheme was given go-ahead in the budget 2019-20. Here colleges will provide infrastructure, including projectors, computer labs and electricity, which is readily available with them. But the trainers and training material will be provided by RSLDC after conducting thorough surveys in the concerned colleges. This scheme has completed its first phase by conducting these surveys in different colleges and their demands have been assessed. Many students have come forward and shown their willingness to participate, based on which, we have invited applications from our training partners.
Our existing training partners have shown their interest and as a result, around 118 colleges have received around 300 batches in which more than 8000 students are enrolled.
This scheme is unique because no state in the country has gone for an official state-sponsored scheme for college students. Final year college students have been targeted so that when they pass out in the coming year, they possess three to four months skill experience or some skill certification which can increase their chances of getting a good placement.
RSLDC runs various kinds of skill training programmes?
RSLDC runs various schemes based on different objectives. The first scheme is known as Employment Linked Skill Training Programme (ELSTP). Started in 2012, it is partly funded by the Rajasthan government. Very strict norms are followed in this programme and it is warranted by the training partners that they will establish a skill training centre, fulfilling all the requirements. These norms are quite high in standards. They also have to follow the National Skill Qualification (NSQ) framework. And after the training, 50 percent youths have to be given placement and 20 percent have to be given selfemployment. Payments to the training partners are made –
- When they fulfil the training criteria
- When they fulfil the assessment criteria
- When they fulfil the assessment and self-employment criteria
The second scheme is known as Regular Skill Training Programme (RSTP). The main objective of this scheme is to run the various programmes with the help of Krishi Vigyan Kendras, Universities, Colleges, Technical Institutions and Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs).
This programme has been made for specialised categories of the population like women, disabled persons, and even inmates living in correctional homes. It is a targeted scheme where the trainee age group has been fixed from 15 to 45 years.
Around 31 fields are covered and around 127 types of programmes are made available in this scheme. ELSTP and RSTP are both free programmes; the trainees don’t have to pay anything. Furthermore, the training partners are given the responsibility for mobilising the required youth to attend the classes.
FAQs
What are the key objectives of RSLDC?
- To provide skill training to unemployed youth and make them job-ready.
- To bridge the gap between industry demand and skilled labor.
- To create sustainable livelihood opportunities through skill enhancement.
- To promote entrepreneurship and self-employment.
Who is eligible to participate in RSLDC programs?
- Unemployed youth from Rajasthan, generally between the ages of 18-35.
- Individuals from economically weaker sections (EWS), SC/ST categories, women, and marginalized groups.
- School dropouts and those seeking skill upgradation.
What types of training programs does RSLDC offer?
- Manufacturing
- Information Technology (IT) and IT-enabled services
- Healthcare
- Retail and Sales
- Tourism and Hospitality
- Construction and Infrastructure
- Agriculture and Food Processing