Policies for Child Beggars

• The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment has formulated a scheme “SMILE - Support for Marginalized Individuals for Livelihood and Enterprise”, which includes a sub-scheme - ‘Central Sector Scheme for Comprehensive Rehabilitation of persons engaged in the act of Begging’.
• This scheme covers several comprehensive measures including welfare measures for persons who are engaged in the act of begging.
• The focus of the scheme is extensively on rehabilitation, provision of medical facilities, counselling, basic documentation, education, skill development, economic linkages and so on.
• The scheme would be implemented with the support of State/UT Governments/Local Urban Roadies, Voluntary Organizations, Community Based Organizations (CBOs), institutions and others. The scheme provides for the use of the existing shelter homes available with the State/UT Governments and Urban local bodies for rehabilitation of the persons engaged in the act of Begging.
• Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment has also initiated pilot projects on Comprehensive Rehabilitation of Persons engaged in the act of Begging in ten cities namely Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Indore, Lucknow, Mumbai, Nagpur, Patna and Ahmedabad.
• These pilots are being implemented in these cities by State Governments/UTs/Local Urban Bodies and Voluntary Organizations.
• Several comprehensive measures including survey and identification, mobilization, basic hygiene and medical facilities, providing basic documentation, counselling, rehabilitation, education, skill development and sustainable settlement of persons engaged in begging are being undertaken under these pilots.
• Further, the Department of School Education & Literacy in partnership with the States and UT Governments have taken steps to ensure that the children into begging are released and enrolled in schools to complete their elementary education.
• No funds are being allotted to NGOs for rehabilitation of destitute women and children by this Ministry.
• However, the Ministry of Women and Child Development supports the States/UTs either by themselves or in association with voluntary organizations for providing institutional care for destitute children covering age-appropriate education, access to vocational training, recreation, health care, counseling etc.

Sector Skill Councils

What are Sector Skill Councils?

• Since its inception, one of the major pillars of NSDC’s strength is Sector Skill Councils (SSCs), which play a vital role in bridging the gap between what the industry demands and what the skilling requirements ought to be.
• The National Occupational Standard is one of the most significant contributions of NSDC to India's skilling ecosystem - something that was made possible by the SSCs, which are national partner organizations that bring together all the stakeholders - industry, labour and academia.
• The SSCs operate as an autonomous body and could be registered as a Section 8 Company, or a Society.
• NSDC is mandated to initiate and incubate SSCs with initial seed funding to facilitate their growth and enable them to achieve self-sustainability in a time-bound manner.
• National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC), under the aegis of the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, has,so far, formed 37 Sector Skill Councils (SSCs) which cover all the major sectors to fulfil the skilling needs of their respective sectors.

Criteria to set up Sector Skill Councils

• The establishment of further Sector Skill Councils is based on multiple criteria like support from Industry for the creation of SSC, interest from Industry to participate in the activities of SSC, existing workforce of sector, need for upskilling/reskilling of the existing workforce, likely addition of new work in the next 5-10 years, etc.
• SSCs can also be approved if the target segment is special and unorganized but is sizable and needs skilling for better opportunities of employment, e.g., Skill Council for PwD, Domestic Workers Skill Council etc.7 SSCs are working for the needs of artisans/weavers/farmers.

Role of Sector Skill Councils (SSCs)

The National Policy on Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, 2015 laid out the Skill India Mission, and envisaged the creation of Sector Skill Councils (SSCs) by NSDC. Priority sectors have been identified based on the skill gap analysis.

Functions of Sector Skill Councils (SSCs)

The SSCs have been mandated with the following functions:

• Identification of skill development needs including preparing a catalogue of types of skills, range and depth of skills to facilitate individuals to choose from them.
• Development of a sector skill development plan and maintaining skill inventory.
• Determining skills/competency standards and qualifications and getting them notified as per NSQF.
• Standardization of affiliation, accreditation, examination and certification process in accordance with NSQF as determined by NSQC.
• May also conduct skill-based assessment and certification for QP /NOS aligned training programmes.
• Participation in the setting up of affiliation, accreditation, examination and certification norms for their respective sectors.
• Plan and facilitate the execution of Training of Trainers along with NSDC and states.
• Promotion of academies of excellence.
• Paying particular attention to the skilling needs of ST/SC, differently-abled and minority groups.
• Ensuring that the persons trained and skilled in accordance with the norms laid down are assured of employment at decent wages.

National Livestock Mission (NLM)

About National Livestock Mission (NLM)

• The National Livestock Mission (NLM) scheme is being implemented in the country since 2014. The scheme has been realigned during 2021-22.
• The salient features of realigned National Livestock Mission (NLM) scheme are employment generation, entrepreneurship development, increase in per animal productivity and thus targeting increased production of meat, goat milk, egg and wool.

The objectives of the National Livestock Mission are:

• Employment generation through entrepreneurship development in small ruminant, poultry, piggery and Fodder sector.
• Increase per animal productivity through breed improvement
• Increase in production of meat, egg, goat milk, wool and fodder.
• The increasing availability of fodder and feed to substantially reduces the demand – by strengthening the fodder seed supply chain and the availability of certified fodder seeds.
• Encouraging the establishment of fodder processing units to reduce the demand-supply gap
• Promoting risk management measures including livestock insurance for farmers.
• Promoting applied research in prioritized areas of poultry, sheep, goat, feed and fodder
• Capacity building of state functionaries and livestock owners through strengthened extension machinery to provide quality extension service to farmers.
• Promoting skill-based training and dissemination of technologies for reducing the cost of production and improving the production of the livestock sector.

Animal Husbandry Infrastructure Development Fund (AHIDF)

• AHIDF is a central sector scheme and no state-wise and UT-wise allocation of funds is done for the scheme.
• Total funds allocated under the Animal Husbandry Infrastructure Development Fund in the current year i.e., 2021-2022 is Rs 113.00 Crore and the total funds utilized under the Animal Husbandry Infrastructure Development Fund in the current year is Rs. 62.42 Crore till date.