Himayat

The Indian Government is taking several initiatives to enhance employment opportunities in Jammu and Kashmir and conceive job plans that involve private and public sectors. As a part of this, an expert group has been authorized to report to the Prime Minister on the identification of sectoral initiatives for the growth and employment generation and to increase the employability of youth by developing their existing skill sets. This expert group has suggested various initiatives, which includes Skill, Empowerment and Employment in Jammu and Kashmir - SEE J&K scheme, popularly known as Himayat Programme. The Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD) implements Himayat as 100% Central assisted scheme to facilitate placement and training of 1 lakh J&K youth.

Objective

The intention of the Himayat Programme is to provide options and opportunities to all youth in J&K, ranging from school dropouts to college-educated, to select training programs for salaried or self-employment individuals based on their interest. The placement would be conducted in private sectors, both within and outside J&K.

Programme Features

The Himayat Programme is a predominant placement linked market driven skill training programme for the youth in the State.
The Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD) serves as the nodal agency to implement the programme and renders both technical and financial assistance for the implementation of the programme.
The centrally sponsored special projects under National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM) has been implemented by MoRD, which is limited only to rural BPL youth. The Himayat Programme for J&K would be a central sector scheme that covers all youth from rural and urban areas belonging to both BPL and non-BPL categories.
The programme covers 1 lakh youth by implementing competent training from the private sector and non-profit organizations.
Himayat Programme comprises of two components, namely provision of training for youth for salaried employment and provision of assistance to youth for self-employment. The former is given preference and is offered with 70% of the programme funds. The remaining 30% of the funds are allocated for self-employment training.
The training includes placement linked skill training, where at least 75% of the youth are trained for jobs in organized sectors that have been the statutory minimum wage.
Placement for youth would be provided all over the country, starting from the State.
Under the Himayat Programme, various trading strategies would be used for diverse groups of youth-school dropouts.

Project Implementing Agency

The Himayat Programme would be implemented as a Public-Private Partnership, serving as a platform where reputed and credible private companies (for-profit and not for profit) and Non-Government Organizations (NGOs), industry partners who have demonstrated and implemented community-based youth development and skill development initiatives may pose suitable projects to MoRD.

Funding Pattern

The funding pattern for Himayat consists of two components, funding for rural BPL youth and funding for rural non-BPL youth and urban BPL/non-BPL youth. The first component would be funded by MoRD from special NRLM, whereas the provisions for the second component is made under Skill, Empowerment and Employment scheme for J&K' under the main SGSY. Required funds for the second component would be obtained in the first batch of supplementary demand for grants that are made during the next financial year. The necessary provision for the following years would be included in the respective Annual Plan. These are areas where additional funding would be required.

To train some youth outside the valley, due to better training infrastructure.
To provide post-placement and mentoring support to youth to ensure their placement and job retention outside the State.
The maximum investment, including all components under each project, should not be more than Rs. 15 crores and the minimum project cost should not be below Rs. 1 crore.
Recurring expenditure such as the creation of posts or vehicles or maintenance expenditure is not permitted in the projects.

Identification of Project Area

The Himayat Programme covers all rural and urban districts of the State. The districts and blocks are covered in a phased manner that begins with the districts that have a high incidence of poverty. The State Government indicates the priority districts and phasing.
In the project proposal, the PIA indicates the districts and blocks where they propose to have the training centres. The districts and blocks would be finally approved and finalized in the Project Approval Committee Meeting.

Mobilization and Selection of Trainees

After sanctioning the project, the PIA takes up youth mobilization in a systematic manner. All the trainees within the age group 18-35 years, with aptitude required for trade or job requirements would be selected. The PIA creates awareness and publicity campaign in local electronic/print media, liaise with Gram/Halka Panchayat, conducts roadshows and organize meetings for spreading awareness of the scheme, resulting in youth enrolment.
Every PIA positions a community mobilized for each training centre, who works in tandem with the trainers during mobilization and assist in the post-placement monitoring and tracking as determined. The community mobilizes acts as a link between the community and the PIA throughout the year, during the period when new batches are trained for the same training centre.

Release of Funds

On the approval of the projects, MoRD releases funds to coordinating, monitoring and fund routing agencies like NIRD, that release these funds to PIAs in three instalments.

First Installment

The first instalment that accords 25% of the total project cost would be released once the project is approved by PAC. The funds would be routed through the fund routing/monitoring/coordinating agencies to the PIAs.

Second Installment

The second instalment of 50% of the project funds would be released upon the following conditions.

Utilization of 60% of the first instalment and achieving the corresponding physical target.
Submission of utilization certificates for at least 60% of the total available funds.
Submission of audit reports of the funds utilized.
Regular reporting of progress in the given format and against the approved expenditure phasing.
A certificate from the Implementing/Coordinating Agency, stating the project is implemented according to the project proposal.

Third Instalment

The third and final instalment of 25% of project fund would be released upon the following conditions.

Utilization of 90% of the total available funds and achieving the corresponding physical targets.
Submission of utilization certificates for at least 60% of the total available funds.
Submission of audit reports of the funds utilized.
Regular reporting of progress in the given format.
A certificate from the Implementing/Coordinating Agency stating the project is implemented according to the project proposal.
Before releasing the third and final instalment, MoRD has to verify/evaluate project progress by a third-party/independent agency.

Project Duration

The project is usually designed to be implemented within three years. However, in certain cases, for process-oriented and long gestation projects, the period of implementation would not exceed five years.

Utilization of Interest

The interest amount that is accrued from Government releases is adjusted against the Government share of the project cost during the release of the third and final instalment.