Vocational Training in Tribal Areas

Scheduled Tribes are the most marginalized section of the society, therefore to assist their socio-economic development; there is an imperative need to provide more employment avenues and income generation opportunities. It is aimed at upgrading the skills of the tribal youths in various traditional/modern vocations depending upon their educational qualification, present economic trends and the market potential, which would enable them to gain suitable employment or enable them to become self-employed. The scheme will be implemented for the benefit of the Scheduled Tribes as well as PTGs and can be taken up anywhere in the country but priority will be given to remote tribal areas, areas inhabited by particularly vulnerable tribes and areas affected by extremist activities.

Components of the Scheme:

• The organization running VTC will admit the ST youth irrespective of the region/State to which they belong.
• It will be imperative on the part of the concerned organization (i.e. States/UTs/NGOs/other organizations) to assess the employment potential in a particular area in advance depending on the educational qualification of the target population, type of industries available in that region/State, present economic trend and market potential, etc. before proposing the trades.
• The organizations will establish linkages with recognized institutions which can provide a Certificate/Diploma to the candidates for the trades in which they have been trained.
• The institutions/organizations (State/UT run institutions as well as NGOs) who are already running projects with assistance from this Ministry, and also the new applicant institutions/organizations should get/have recognition/affiliation/accreditation under “Modular Employable Skills (MES)” from Regional Directorate of Apprenticeship Training of the State/UT Governments or recognition/affiliation under “Craftsmen Training Scheme (CTS)” from National Council of Vocational Training (NCVT) under Directorate General of Employment & Training (Ministry of Labour & Employment, Government of India), as applicable.
• The organization should establish linkages with placement services, and for the candidates interested in self-employment after availing the training, the organization shall arrange easy microfinance/loans for them through financial institutions, National Scheduled Tribe Finance Development Corporation (NSTFDC), banks, etc. Preference will be given to those institutions which guarantee placement/employment after completion of training.
• As far as possible, a minimum of 33% of seats will be reserved for tribal girl candidates.
• 100% grant-in-aid will be provided to the States/UTs/State-owned institutions/VOs/NGOs/other private organizations, eligible for assistance of the Scheme.
• The grant-in-aid will be released to the State/UT Governments/State-owned institutions in one instalment in a year, and to the NGOs/private institutions in two instalments as per General Financial Rules.