New Delhi: As many as 34,920 rural youth are set to begin skill training under the revamped Deen Dayal Upadhyaya-Grameen Kaushalya Yojana (DDU-GKY) 2.0 from October 2026, with training batches scheduled to commence across 14 states and Union territories.
The Ministry of Rural Development said 1,164 batches will start in October across Odisha, Mizoram, Sikkim, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, West Bengal, Himachal Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Puducherry, Karnataka, Telangana and Bihar.
The 14 states and UTs have a sanctioned target of training 3,57,112 rural youth by December 31, 2027.
DDU-GKY is a centrally sponsored scheme that provides placement-linked skill training to poor rural youth. Training programmes range from three to 12 months, depending on the course.
According to the ministry, targets for the 2026-28 period have been allocated to all 31 participating states and UTs. More than five lakh training targets have already been allocated to Project Implementing Agencies (PIAs), while the DDU-GKY 2.0 portal shows allocations totalling 5.6 lakh targets across more than 1,200 projects in 24 states and UTs.
The ministry has asked states and UTs to complete target allocation to PIAs by October 31, 2026, and accelerate mobilisation of eligible rural youth and commencement of training batches.
The ministry also reviewed implementation of the DDU-GKY 2.0 Integrated Portal, which is designed to manage the project life cycle digitally and facilitate greater transparency and monitoring.
States where integration with State Treasury Portals is pending have been advised to complete the process by September 30 to enable online payments through the Grameen Kaushal Portal.
To familiarise PIAs with the digital platform, the ministry will conduct regional workshops in October at Shillong, Vijayawada, Mumbai and Dharamshala.
The ministry also reviewed the financial position of the scheme. States and UTs indicated that expenditure is expected to rise with the start of training batches from October.
The review meeting was attended virtually by senior officials from the ministry and participating states and UTs.
