Initiating Peace Building in the Minds of Men and Women through Skills Development: Reflection from Recent Government Initiatives in India. Presented at the Global Peace and Harmony Conference (GPHC-2013), JNU, India, 21 September 2013 on International Day of Peace.

1. Initiating Peace Building in the
Minds of Men and Women through
Skills Development
Anup Kumar Das
Jawaharlal Nehru University
New Delhi
Reflection from Recent Government
Initiatives in India
Presented at the Global Peace and Harmony Conference (GPHC-2013),
JNU, India, 21 September 2013.

3. Context
• 1 in 6 people around the world are aged 15-24. They are
disproportionately concentrated in the world’s poorest
countries.
• 1 in 5 young people in developing countries have not
completed primary school.
• 1 in 8 young people are unemployed. They haven’t got the
skills needed for work.
• 1 in 4 young people earn less than $1.25 per day.

4. What Skills Are Needed?
Foundation Skills: are the first steps in education; they are basic skills
such as reading, writing and mathematics, which can be gained in
primary and lower secondary school. These are prerequisites for
continuing in education. For those who miss out on learning these skills,
second chance programmes are a way to gain them when older.
Transferable Skills: refer to a wide variety of skills, such as problem
solving, entrepreneurship and communication skills, which are essential
for productive jobs. They can be obtained throughout education. These
skills allow young people to adapt to different work environments.
Technical and Vocational Skills: are specific practical skills such as
metalwork, ICT, sewing and farming, that prepare a youth for a particular
job. They are learned at higher levels of education and formal and
informal on-the-job training such as apprenticeships.

5. Disadvantaged Youth
Many young people around the world leave school without the skills they
need for work and life.
They are deprived of their right to have access to learning opportunities,
due to poverty, conflict, disabilities, their social status, their gender, or
where they live.
The various groups of young people, who cannot experience the basic
right of learning the skills needed for work, include.
• Rural poor
• Urban poor
• Young women
• Young people affected by conflict
• Marginalized minorities
• Young people with disabilities
• Young people with HIV and AIDS
Where do people live in extreme poverty?
•30% Urban, 70% Rural; Around 70% of the world's 1.4 billion people living in extreme
poverty inhabit rural areas (EFA GMR 2012)

6. Disadvantaged Youth
Disadvantaged youth require following skills:
•Skills needed to work on modern technologically enhanced farms.
(Rural)
•Increasingly land-scarcity means that non-farm jobs are more
important than ever. Non-farm jobs require business and finance
skills.
•Urban disadvantaged youths engage in informal sector, including
waste-picking, street vending, sewing, garment making, domestic
help, etc.
•They require technical skills for alternate and more sustainable
vocation such as plumber, electrician, carpenter, tailor, security
guard, computer operator, etc. Many of them also require
business and finance skills for self-employment.

7. Steps To A Better Future
1. Provide second-chance education for those with low or no foundation
skills
2. Tackle the barriers that limit access to lower secondary school
3. Make upper secondary education more accessible to the disadvantaged
and improve its relevance to work
4. Give poor urban youth access to skills training for better jobs
5. Aim policies and programmes at youth in deprived rural areas
6. Link skills training with social protection for the poorest youth
7. Make the training needs of disadvantaged young women a high priority
8. Harness the potential of technology to enhance opportunities for young
people
9. Improve planning by strengthening data collection and coordination of
skills programmes
10. Mobilize additional funding from diverse sources dedicated to the
training needs of disadvantaged youth

8. Steps to A Better Future: Examples in India
1. Provide second-chance education for
those with low or no foundation skills
2. Tackle the barriers that limit access to
lower secondary school
3. Make upper secondary education more
accessible to the disadvantaged and
improve its relevance to work
4. Give poor urban youth access to skills
training for better jobs
5. Aim policies and programmes at youth
in deprived rural areas
6. Link skills training with social protection
for the poorest youth
7. Make the training needs of
disadvantaged young women a high
priority
8. Harness the potential of technology to
enhance opportunities for young people
9. Improve planning by strengthening data
collection and coordination of skills
programmes
10. Mobilize additional funding from
diverse sources dedicated to the
training needs of disadvantaged youth
1. Open Schooling; National Literacy Mission
2. Mid-day Meal scheme, Sarva Shiksha
Abhiyan, Right of Education (RTE) Act
3. Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan,
Vocational Education in Schools, Open
Schooling
4. National Urban Livelihoods Mission
(NURM)
5. Aajeevika - National Rural Livelihoods
Mission (NRLM)
6. Vocational Training Centres for Women
(under NVTS, NRLM, NURM)
7. Placement-linked training in NRLM, NURM
8. Aakash Tablet PC; Digital Learning Centres
for disadvantaged youths
9. MIS and data dissemination for NRLM ,
RTE, etc.
10. Education Cess and other planned budget
• Every 1 spent on education generates 10-15₹ ₹
in economic growth (EFA GMR 2012).

9. Aajeevika Skill Development Programme (ASDP)
Target: Rural youth age group of 17-35 years from below poverty line (BPL) families.

10. Concluding Remarks
• Skills development of marginalised youth belonging to below
poverty line (BPL) families or left-wing extremism (LWE)
affected districts, or a group of school dropouts is very critical
for inclusive growth and national development.
• Meaningful and socially productive engagement of youth is
assured through targeted skills development Missions.
• Skills development also helps in coping up hardship a majority
of these marginalized population felt due to historical reasons
of social injustice, displacement and exploitation their
forefathers experienced for centuries.
• Skills building also helps in socio-economic empowerment of
targeted communities and peace building in the minds of
young citizens.

11. References
• OECD and ILO (2011), Job-rich Growth in Asia: Strategies for
local employment, skills development and social protection,
OECD Publishing, Paris.
• Planning Commission (2007), Report of the Task Force on Skill
Development, Planning Commission, New Delhi.
• UNESCO (2012), Youth and Skills: Putting Education to Work,
EFA Global Monitoring Report 2012, UNESCO Publishing,
Paris.
• Youth of the World (2012), Be skilled, Be Employed, Be the
Change Generation: Youth Version of the 2012 Global
Monitoring Report, UNESCO Publishing, Paris.
• World Bank (2013), World Development Report 2013: Jobs,
World Bank, Washington D.C.

12. • Thank You