Introduction And Need for the Scheme
Government of India has set an ambitious plan training 500 million individuals by 2022 which translates to training 42 million a year. For this purpose, India’s vocational training infrastructure needs to be expanded to meet the diverse and many skill requirements of the population. There has been recent concern about the decline in women’s workforce participation in India. Simultaneously, women have become more aspirational and are ready to contribute equally to the economy.
MWCD, through its STEP Programme, has been addressing special situation of poor women and women in remote areas who are not in a position to move out of their immediate surroundings and go to a formal skill centre to acquire training. The STEP Programme a 100% Central Sector Scheme is under implementation since 1986- 87. Training is provided to poor and marginalized women in traditional trades which are largely in the informal sector. The programme strives to build upon the traditional knowledge of women and convert it into sustainable livelihood capacitation.
rigorous process of scrutiny of thousands of proposals that were received in response to the 2014 Guidelines as well as the Gazette notification issued by the Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship and NITI Aayog’s Guidelines for implementation of Centrally Sponsored Schemes/Central Sector Schemes through NGOs. A separate section has been added as guidance to the applicant organizations.
Objects of the Scheme
The scheme has 2 fold objectives viz.
Target Group
The scheme is intended to benefit women who are in the age group of 16 years and above.
Eligible Organization/ Project Implementing Agencies (PIAs)
Grants-in-aid under the STEP programme may be given to an institution having a distinct legal entity as under:
Criteria for Selection of Project Implementing Agencies (PIAs)
Trades Covered
(a) Assistance under the STEP Scheme will be available in any sector for imparting skills related to employability and entrepreneurship as identified by the Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship (MSDE) including but not limited to the following :
In case any other specific course is conducted in any trade which is not included in the list given in Schedule II of MSDE’s notification dated 08.08.2015 and amendments thereto (attached below), consultation with the industry and thereafter approval of Common Norms Committee will be required for giving approval to it.
(b) Soft skills (which would include computer literacy, language and workplace inter-personal skills relevant for the sector/trade) would be an integral part of the skills training process and must be suitably integrated into the course modules.
(c) All Skill Development courses offered under the scheme framework must conform to the National Skill Qualification Framework (NSQF) notified on 27.12.2013(attached below). Government funding would not be available for any training or educational programme/course if it is not NSQF compliant.