Empowering Rural Women through Skill Formation Training - An Empirical Study of Swarnajayanti Gram Swarojgar Yojana in India

Abstract

Skill formation on non-farm enterprises has been a major component in the Swarnajayanti Gram Swaorjgar Yojana (SGSY). Training on various aspects has been provided to the Swarojgaries (members of the self-help groups mainly women) at the Community Development Block and also at the Gram Panchayat levels. The training programmes suffer from a number of problems ranging from coverage among Swarojgaries, duration, efficacy of such training programmes. The large number of training programmes only indicates that they have 'supply-driven and not 'demand- driven'. Nearly fifty per cent of the Swarojgaris had not been interested in obtaining any training as they may have found that these would not be economically viable. Most of the training programmes have been of farm type rather than of non-farm type. Further, problems encountered after obtaining the training has not been taken into account.