Skill development schemes in India often struggle with the gap between training and sustainable employment. Discuss this in the context of DDU-GKY and evaluate reforms introduced under DDU-GKY 2.0.

Launched in 2014 under the National Rural Livelihood Mission, the Ministry of Rural Development's DDU-GKY offers placement-linked skilling to rural poor youth aged 15–35 [2]. Its record shows that India's skilling challenge has shifted from getting a job to keeping one.

The training–employment gap in DDU-GKY

• Scale without retention: about 16.9 lakh trained and 10.97 lakh placed (Nov 2024), a ~65% placement rate that counts a one-time event, not a career [1].
• Wages drive dropout: the Standing Committee on Rural Development (2026) found placement gaps and a high job dropout rate due to low salaries [3].
• Migration cost: placements typically require leaving the village; rent and food erode an already low wage, which is why the Committee studied skilling and migration together [3].
• Idle capacity: fund underutilisation left sanctioned money unspent and batches unstarted, with wide inter-State performance gaps [3].
• Thin access: 2,369+ centres across 27 States and 4 UTs — fewer than India's districts — limiting reach, especially for women [2].

Evaluating DDU-GKY 2.0

• Retention tracking raised from 3 to 6 months [1] — an honest admission that the old figure counted jobs that did not last; but tracking measures attrition, it does not raise the wage causing it.
• Batch-based funding [1] rewards training actually delivered and curbs underutilisation, though thinly-populated districts may struggle to fill batches.
• Upskilling and reskilling of already-employed candidates [1] rightly targets career progression rather than first placement alone.
• Rollout across most States/UTs from October 2026 [4] makes Centre–State execution the decisive variable.

DDU-GKY's reach and its willingness to self-correct are genuine strengths; 2.0 fixes measurement and financing but leaves the wage question open. Pairing it with the Committee's advice — industry tie-ups and local recruitment, district-level training centres and women-focused batches [3] — would convert skilling into dignified, durable livelihoods, advancing the Article 41 promise of the right to work.