Self-Employment Generation in Rural Economy: A Study of Skill Generation Programme

Poverty and unemployment are the two sides of the same coin. When we solve one problem in the society, the second will be taken care along with it. In the present scenario, poverty and unemployment are the still most severe problems faced by the Indian economy. Special income generation and socio-economic development programmes were introduced among selected target groups in the rural sector for small farmers, landless agricultural labourers and for scheduled caste and scheduled tribes. This new strategy was adopted because, after the critical review of the earlier plans and their achievements, it was found that the benefits of economic growth had failed to percolate to the lower income groups and weaker sections of the society. The majority of the rural poor own very little or no land at all. They are not educated and have no skills, so they cannot find employment. To generate skills among rural youths so as to provide self-employment and wage employment to them, the government implemented a special scheme called ‘Training of Rural Youth for Self-Employment (TRYSEM)’. This programme was very much helpful to the untrained rural youth to take up self-employment. Thus, in this paper, it is felt necessary to evaluate the performance of the programme at the micro level.