Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana (DDU-GKY) is the placement-linked skill development programme of the Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India.
Target Group: Rural poor youth (15–35 years)
Objective: Provide industry-relevant skill training and wage employment
The programme focuses on improving employability, increasing rural household income, and supporting sustainable livelihoods through structured training and assured placement.
- Skill rural youth in market-relevant trades
- Provide wage employment opportunities
- Ensure placements at minimum semi-skilled wages
- Promote long-term livelihood sustainability
- Support migration and career progression
- Placement-linked training programme
- Public–Private Partnership (PPP) implementation
- Mandatory soft skills and work-readiness training
- Digital literacy and functional English modules
- Post-placement tracking and retention support
- Migration Support Centres for out-of-state jobs
Eligible trainees receive:
- Free skill training
- Free uniforms and course material
- Free boarding & lodging (residential courses)
- Travel reimbursement (non-residential courses)
- Post-placement support
- Career progression assistance
- Batch-wise monitoring instead of project-level monitoring
- 3-year project duration
- Performance-based fund release
- Outcome-led payment system
- Central–State–PIA partnership
- Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs)
- Geo-tagged biometric attendance
- PFMS-based fund tracking
- Real-time monitoring
- Digital learning infrastructure
- Central MIS (Kaushal Rural Portal)
Multi-level monitoring ensures programme quality:
| Level | Responsibility |
|---|---|
| PIA Internal Q-Team | Monthly inspections |
| SRLM / State Teams | Quarterly inspections |
| CTSA (NIRDPR & NABCONS) | Fourth-Monthly — Independent verification & monitoring |
The Central Technical Support Agency (CTSA) supports MoRD in programme implementation.
- Training centre inspections
- Placement verification
- Capacity building of States & PIAs
- Employer engagement
- Performance monitoring
- Impact and tracer studies
- Skill gap studies
- Training of Trainers (ToT)
- Rating and Grading of States/PIAs
- Best practices documentation
Programme performance and achievements can be viewed at:
- https://kaushalbharat.gov.in — DDU-GKY 1.0
- https://kaushal.rural.gov.in — DDU-GKY 2.0
An initiative of NIRDPR and Canada Fund for Local Initiatives (CFLI)
The repository is being built under the CFLI project that aims to advance the economic rights of transgender and gender-diverse persons in India—particularly those from rural and peri-urban areas—by facilitating access to sustainable, wage-based livelihood opportunities. Through a comprehensive review of national and international livelihood models, enabling policies, and implementation frameworks, the project will identify gaps, challenges, and promising practices.
Community-driven insights gathered from regional consultations with transgender persons, CBOs, employers, and local governments will inform the design of inclusive, context specific solutions that bridge the disconnect between progressive legislation and lived employment realities.
Building on this foundation, the project is developing scalable and adaptable operational models, toolkits, and stakeholder frameworks to guide inclusive livelihood programs. It will generate evidence-based policy briefs and comparative tools to influence labour laws, CSR practices, and welfare schemes, while fostering collaboration among government agencies, industry, civil society, and community organizations. The project ensures sustainability through the development of publicly accessible, long-term-use resources that can be adopted by ministries, state governments, CSR partners, and skilling agencies. NIRDPR will promote continued adoption through its national training mandate, while Intermediary Organizations will support ongoing grassroots engagement and monitoring through its community networks.
Currently, as a part of the project, desk review and situation analysis, and field documentation of best practices are in progress.
CFLI team said: "Canada is proud to support NIRDPR through the Canada Fund for Local Initiatives (CFLI), reflecting our shared commitment to inclusive development, gender equality, and sustainable, community-led solutions. We are pleased to partner with this initiative and commend their efforts to strengthen community engagement and resilience. Canada remains committed to working alongside local leaders to help build a more equitable and just future for local communities."