Skill development centre comes up in Udaipur

With the view to provide employment opportunities in Rajasthan, India's first skill development centre has come up in Udaipur, and was inaugurated by state Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje on Saturday, according to a post on the web site of the Federation of Indian Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (FISME). The centre, which has been set up under the Livelihood Skill Project, was inaugurated by state Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje on Saturday.

While addressing a function after inaugurating the centre, which has been set up under the Livelihood Skill Project, Raje said that her government would work to provide employment opportunities to all. She further said that the state government will make youths self-reliant by providing them skill training, adding that the state government will open 200 such centres in all 33 districts of the state. An agreement has been signed with 40 agencies to provide skill training to the youth, she said.

The Rajasthan Skill and Livelihoods Development Corporation (RSLDC) has several skill development schemes, such as employment-linked skill training programmes; aajivika skill development programmes; vocational training programmes; and regular skill training programmes.

The state has an estimated labour force of 280 lakh which is growing at about 2.2 per cent per annum. There are thus about six lakh additional persons seeking work per year. However, the growth rate of employment, which is 1.1 per cent a year, has not kept pace, leading to rising unemployment.

Further, there are about 20 million "working poor", who are employed at a low wage rate or earn inadequately from self-employment, according to RSLDC.