As part of 75 years of Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav, the Railway Ministry has launched Rail Kaushal Vikas Yojana, a program under the Modi government’s Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana. The Centre’s Rail Kaushal Vikas Yojana aims to empower India’s youth by offering entry-level training in industry-relevant skills through Indian Railways’ training institutes. According to Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, the vision of skill development is an integral part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision and under this Yojna, 50 thousand youths will be trained in total. This initiative’s aim is to impart training skills to the nation’s youth in various trades in a bid to bring qualitative improvement. The minister also emphasized that under Rail Kaushal Vikas Yojana, training is to be conducted in remote areas.
Under this scheme, training will be provided to a total of 50,000 candidates over a three years’ period. As many as 75 training institutes of Indian Railways have been shortlisted to provide training. Initially, the training will be offered to one thousand candidates. The training, according to the Railway Ministry, will be provided in four trades viz. Electrician, Machinist, Welder and Fitter. It will consist of initial basic training of 100 hours. Based on regional demands and needs assessment, training programs in other trades will be added by Indian Railways’ zones and production units.
The Rail Kaushal Vikas Yojana training shall be provided to candidates free of cost and the selection of the participants will be done from applications received online, following a transparent procedure on the basis of candidates’ marks in matriculation. Those who are between 18-35 years and are 10th passed shall be eligible to apply. However, on the basis of this training, candidates in the Rail Kaushal Vikas scheme will have no claim to seek employment in the Indian Railways network.
The curriculum for this training has been developed by Banaras Locomotive Works. Currently, a nodal web portal is being developed as the single source of information about programs that are being offered under this program, notification inviting application, study material, lists of selected participants, selection results, final assessment as well as other details. At present, interested applicants may apply in response to the advertisements issued locally in the initial phase. Soon, the submission of online applications will be opened on a centralized web portal.
