CM Review Meeting on AP State Youth Policy

CM to meet officials in 15 days to analyse data for Unemployment Allowance

Youth Unemployment Allowance to subsidise monetary strain during job search

The Department of Youth Services met the Chief Minister on Thursday, to discuss the AP State Youth Policy and the Unemployment Allowance.

The Chief Minister perused through the presentation, and participated in a detailed critique of the implementation of the scheme with Ministers Nara Lokesh,YanamalaRamakrishnudu,  Pithani Satyanarayana and Kollu Ravindra, Chief Secretary Dinesh Kumar, Secretary (BC Welfare) B. Udayalakshmiand Special Commissioner Komal Kishore.

The AP State Youth Policy aims to make the youth employable and addresses the overall welfare of socially and economically disadvantaged youth.

The Unemployment Allowance, only to be availed by white ration cardholders, is a cash transfer made by the state to persons registered as unemployed and actively seeking employment.

The identified age group for the allowance was 15 to 35, because the eligibility for government employment is to be younger than 35. After speculation, the Chief Minister changed this to 18, clarifying that the allowance must not discourage the youth from studying.

“Once a student graduates, and is unable to find employment, the government wants to reduce the monetary strain during the job search”, said the Chief Minister. “I want to improve employment opportunities for graduates and post graduates after ensuring adequate training and skill development.”

The officials explained the ten priority areas, Education, Entrepreneurship, Employment & Skill Development, Participation in Politics & Governance, Youth Engagement, Health, Sports & Recreation, Social Values & Inclusion, Community Service and Social Justice.

They also reported that in India, 10 states and 4 union territories have implemented the Youth Policy and submitted the case study of 8 states. The GoM expressed that they want to physically visit some of the states and understand the implementation methods better.

Purification of data

The Planning and IT departments are going to form a committee to purify the data, and eliminate inconsistencies. For example, the population of unemployed youth in AP was 9.5 lakh on the live register of Employment Exchanges and 34 lakhs according to Prajasadhikarika.

The Chief Minister said that it should be announced that in an allotted period of 15 to 20 days, all unemployed youth can register online, so that they can avail the benefits of the Youth Policy and the numbers are updated.

“The details of this scheme need to be further furnished, and the data needs to be purified and integrated with that of the Labour Department, Planning Department, Employment Exchanges and others. The qualifying age group and educational background will be finalised once we can analyse the correct data in the next meeting”, he said.

The GoM was asked to be prepared in 15 days, when the next review meeting will be held.

Skill Development and Training

After it was pointed out that the state has a training capacity of only 3 lakh, the Chief Minister spoke about possibilities of associating with companies from the industry.

Engaging different agencies that guarantee employment, and finding a sustainable solution to unemployment is priority now, he said.