Project Unnati

Why in news?

• The Union Rural Development Ministry wants to link the performances of the States under the Unnati project with its labour budget for the upcoming financial year.

About Project Unnati:

• Unnati project is a skilling project launched in 2020 intended to upgrade the skill base of the MGNREGA beneficiaries.
• Under the project, the selected candidates are skilled using three established training programmes — the Deen Dayal Upadhyay Grameen Kaushal Yojana (DDU-GKY), the Rural Self Training Institute (RSETI) and the Krishi Vigyan Kendra.
• This project is meant for providing training for one adult member (of age 18-45 years old) of a household who has completed 100 days of work under MGNREGA in the previous financial year from the year of commencement of the project.

Features:

• The household, from which candidates are selected for the training, continue to enjoy 100 days of work under Mahatma Gandhi NREGA.
• The candidates undergoing training are paid a stipend for a maximum period of 100 days and for one program per household as per the wage rate prevailing in the concerned State/UT as per the provisions of the project.
• Full expenditures towards a stipend, against wage loss compensation, are entirely borne by the Central Government.
• Total of 2, 00,000 beneficiaries shall be imparted training under this project in a span of three years in 26 States and 2 UTs.

Performance of the Scheme:

• The performance so far has been far below this 20% target.
• In the 2020-21 FY for example, 71 lakh households worked for 100 days in the country under the MGNREGS but only 8,658 persons received training under the Unnati project.

PRACTICE QUESTION:

With reference to Project Unnati, consider the following statements

1. It aims to upgrade the skill base of the MGNREGA beneficiaries

2. Expenditure of the scheme are equally shared between the Centre and the State Government.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

(a) 1 only

(b) 2 only

(c) Both 1 and 2

(d) Neither 1 nor 2

Answer