New Delhi,
10 June, 2022.
The 2nd
edition of ‘Awards for Excellence in District Skill
Development Planning’ (DSDP)were organised today with great fervour and
fanfare at Dr.Ambedkar International Centre in New Delhi where top 30 districts
were awarded for their innovative best practices in skill development in the
region. Rajkot in Gujarat, Cachar in
Assam and Satara in Maharashtra respectively were ranked top three among all
participating districts.
District Collectors, District Magistrates and
other representatives from across 30 States attended the award ceremony and
shared their ideas & experiences and
presented
the skill development work done at the grassroot level in their
districts.Thirty districts were selected, and awards were given under the
following three categories:
·
Category
I: 8 Awards for Excellence in District Skill Development Planning
·
Category
II: 13 Certificate for Excellence in District Skill Development Planning
·
Category
III: 9 Letter of Appreciation for District Skill Development Planning
Later in an
interactive session, the officials met the Hon’ble Minister of Education and
Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, Shri Dharmendra Pradhan, and Hon’ble Minister
of State (MoS) for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, and Electronics and ITShri
Rajeev Chandrasekhar and shared best practices and work done in their region.
Shri Dharmendra
Pradhan asked the District Collectors, District Magistrates and other officials
to carry out demand-mapping of the
skilled workforce and drive awareness about skill development initiatives at
the local level. He said that skilling is a lifelong process and the DCs should
further the entire continuum of skill development and work towards strengthening the skill development
ecosystem through innovative planning at the district level.
In light of recent disruptions brought by
technology, districts were advised to adopt a bottom-up approach towards skill
development, from both the Ministers.
Guided by the Prime
Minister’s vision of macro-planning for micro-implementation, DSDP Awards act
as a guide for DSCs in integrating district plans with state- and national-level
skill development planning.
Congratulating all participants, Shri Dharmendra Pradhan, Minister of Education and Skill
Development and Entrepreneurship, said all planning for skill development should have a
link to the local economy, and that the way to an Aatmanirbhar Bharat is
through the building of Atmanirbhar districts. Shri Rajeev Chandrasekhar,Minister of State (MoS) for Skill Development and
Entrepreneurship, and Electronics and IT, said the awards were reflective of the Centre’s
intention to build an ancillary skill ecosystem where multi-skilling
opportunities gave rise to ‘village engineers’ and increased livelihood
chances. The science and method behind skill planning should aim to catalyse
the local economy by creating multiple avenues of skilling and multiple job
roles, he said.
Shri Ved Mani Tiwari, Chief
Operating Officer and Officiating Chief Executive Officer, National Skill
Development Corporation, also presented the Skill India Digital Roadmap
highlighting future skills and opportunities for local administrations to focus
their attention on to boost local economy.
Lauding the work done by the districts, Shri Rajesh Aggarwal, Secretary, Ministry of Skill Development &
Entrepreneurship, said, “Riding
on its unique demographic dividend, India is on the path to fulfil Hon'ble
Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi's vision of becoming the Skill Capital of the
World. Many countries with ageing populations are banking on India for skilled
workers, and global companies are keen on starting businesses in India. There
is an urgent need to skill, reskill and upskill the country's youth and
districts can play a pivotal role in fulfilling this mission. I encourage all
district magistrates to keep an eye on the global scenario and align their
skill development programmes accordingly.
In order to build a high value addition economy,
districts should ensure that trained youngsters also get hands-on experience in
the process. I congratulate all winners of DSDP Awards and laud their excellent
effort in creating functional and innovative plans. I am certain with optimal
utilization of district-level resources and institutions, we will swiftly more
towards fulfilling the vision of creating a Skill India," he added.
Among winning districts, the Rajkot DSC has implemented
several projects to augment skill development in the district. With a strong
focus on skilling Persons with Disability (PwD), the district has supported
people with learning disabilities and dyslexia.
Short shelf life and high
transportation cost were posing a supply chain challenge to pineapple farmers of
Assam’s Cachar district, forcing them to dispose of large quantities of the
fruit and sell them at sub-par market prices.By setting up a processing unit
for manufacturing pineapple products locally, the Cachar DSCcame up with a
quick solution to address the problem. This gave farmers the flex and the
bargaining capacity to sell pineapples at a handsome profit once more.
At Satara in Maharashtra,
the DSC implemented various programmes to strengthen skilling, and training a workforce
for disaster management. The district has also owned the responsibility of
empowering women affected during COVID with skill training.
DSDP Awards were instituted under the Skill
Acquisition and Knowledge Awareness for Livelihood Promotion (SANKALP) Scheme
by MSDE in June 2018 to promote decentralised planning, acknowledge and reward
the extraordinary and innovative work done by districts in the field of skill
development. The first DSDP Awards were held in 2018-19, with 228 districts
from 19 states participating in the initiative. Districts with plans of fostering
innovation and enabling local livelihoods with skill development initiatives
were shortlisted for the awards.
MSDE envisages these awards will encourage all
District Skill Committees (DSCs) and will promote better understanding around
DSDP by using capabilities for implementing targeted projects at the district
level. The project aims to maximise the impact of SANKALP’s primary initiative,
which is to strengthen institutional mechanisms for skill development at the
state and district levels.
IIT Delhi and IIT Kharagpur
were chosen as evaluation partners to assess the award entries.
