CS reviews Mission Youth

JAMMU: The Chief Secretary, Dr. Arun Kumar Mehta today said the youth in J&K need to be skilled according to their needs and aspirations to enable them to have not only gainful employment, but also a sense of dignity in the jobs they do. He said there is a need to sharply focus on skilling and up skilling of youth to improve their skills not only for better jobs but to enable them to set up their own ventures. Dr Mehta said skilling and up skilling programmes have to be anchored in the concept of ‘learn to earn’. Dr Mehta made these comments while chairing a meeting to review the progress under Mission Youth, an ambitious programme to empower unemployed 50000 youth in J&K through gainful employment. He said the mission should focus on empowering youth to set up their ventures /start economic activities at new and upcoming 225 heritage/tourist/trekking destinations/sites/routes. Dr Mehta asked CEO, mission youth to tap the youth in and around the areas of these 225 new and upcoming tourist/ heritage/trekking sites/routes for skilling and assistance to enable them to make a living where it would matter to them the most. He asked the mission to build the database of 5 lakh youth through youth clubs and other mission initiatives with aadhar numbers, mobile numbers and other relevant information in an effort to map their job requirements by the end of April 2022. Dr Mehta said the facility to reach out to them through bulk sms, mail etc must also be ensured by the mission and added that it is important for the mission to know about the persons it is dealing with. Earlier, CEO, Mumkin, Shahid Choudhary made a brief presentation on the progress made under various components under the Mission. Shahid informed that while 4882 beneficiaries have been provided self employment under Mumkin scheme so far, 8000 beneficiaries will be provided self employment by the end of the current fiscal year. Under Tejaswani scheme, the Mission has provided financial support to 3447 young women entrepreneurs to take up self-employment ventures across various sectors of the economy. CEO, Mission said a total of 6600 young women will be covered under Scheme by the close of the financial year. Shahid said the mission is collaborating with DDCs, EDI and departments like sheep husbandry, skill development, tourism etc. and that it will not only meet the targets but also exceed them in some cases before the ongoing financial year draws to a close. Saying the utility of resources can be multiplied through convergence, the chief secretary said mission must look to seek convergence with other departments in job creation/skill development. He said a special task force comprising secretaries of a few departments shall be constituted to look into areas of convergence and also set out the measures for creating employment opportunities in the new and upcoming 225 destinations. Dr Mehta asked the mission to follow aggregator approach and set up SHGs for resource/economic multiplier effect and added that such groups can be skilled/trained to make their living using forest and non forest produce in ways that are in harmony with the nature. He also laid emphasis on establishing forest/tribal haats for providing the marketing platforms to SHGs/young entrepreneurs for selling their products. The Chief Secretary also reviewed schemes like AVSAR, Rise Together, Tourist Village Network,