Following Valley specific failure, not further extension to ‘Udaan’

J&K can benefit from two national schemes: MHA

JAMMU: Assessing its results purely on the basis of impact it makes in the Kashmir Valley, the Centre has finally pull out the Udaan scheme which already had little focus on Jammu and Ladakh regions.

Launched by Manmohan Singh government in 2013, the Udaan, an ambitious skill development programme, was in any case set to end in December 2018 but there were widespread demands for its extension for few more years. The envisaged spending Rs 750 Crore over five years but the actual amount incurred till the end of was a little over half of the stipulated amount.

The withdrawal of scheme has a political meaning as well, which has been a key feature of the Narendra Modi government –treating the issues and requirements of Kashmir as those of any other state or region in India. Officials in the Home Ministry are believed to have advised the government that when two major pan India skill development schemes - Skill Development and Employment Scheme and Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana –are already in vogue then why further extend a Kashmir specific scheme.

Following the recommendations of Rangarajan Committee on economic development in Jammu and Kashmir and launched in the backdrop of 2010 summer crisis in the Valley, which saw thousands youth hitting the streets, the skill development scheme, though launched for the whole state was actually intended to target the Kashmiri youth. Unannounced though, the key purpose of the scheme was help create opportunities for the Kashmiri youth in other states in a bid to culturally integrate them with rest of the country.

The Udaan scheme involved training graduates, post graduates, and three-year diploma holders in engineering from across Jammu and Kashmir for a period of five years but the focus was mainly on the Kashmir Valley where the scheme didn’t see much success. The number of young people enrolling for trainings has always remained impressive but not many of them later agreed to take jobs across the state. Skill managers and other experts associated the training scheme attributed its failure to profound homesickness of Kashmiri youth as a majority was seen unwilling to settle for private jobs in other states. Since the private companies, tied up in the Udaan scheme, are in no position to create thousands of local job opportunities within Kashmir, the scheme had to be finally withdrawn.

Budgeted with Rs 750 Crore, the scheme envisaged training around 57,000 youth enabling them to take skilled jobs in the private sector. In its five-year span the Udaan scheme could train a little over 30,000 young people and merely half of them initially enrolled for the jobs.