Jammu: Jammu and Kashmir Chief Secretary AK Mehta on Monday asked officials to build a database of five lakh young people of the union territory by April-end in an effort to map their job requirements.
Mehta was chairing a meeting to review the progress under Mission Youth, an ambitious programme to empower 50,000 unemployed youth in Jammu and Kashmir through gainful employment.
“The youth in J&K need to be skilled according to their needs and aspirations to enable them to have not only gainful employment, but also a sense of dignity in the jobs they do,” the chief secretary said.
There is a need to sharply focus on skilling and upskilling the youth to not only empower them for better jobs but to enable them to set up their own ventures, he said.
Mehta said skilling and upskilling programmes have to be anchored in the concept of ‘learn to earn’.
He asked the officials concerned to build a database of five lakh youth through youth clubs and other mission initiatives with Aadhaar numbers, mobile numbers and other relevant information in an effort to map their job requirements by the end of April.
“The facility to reach out to them through bulk SMS and mail must also be ensured by the mission. It is important for the mission to know about the persons it is dealing with,” he said.
Mehta said the mission should focus on empowering the youth to set up their ventures or start economic activities at new and upcoming heritage, tourist and trekking sites.
He asked Chief Executive Officer, Mission Youth, Shahid Iqbal Choudhary to tap the young people in and around these destinations and provide assistance to enable them to make a living.
Choudhary, in his presentation on the progress made under various components under the mission, said while 4,882 beneficiaries have been provided self-employment under the ‘Mumkin’ scheme so far, 8,000 beneficiaries will be provided self-employment by the end of the current fiscal.
Under the ‘Tejaswani’ scheme, the mission has provided financial support to 3,447 young women entrepreneurs to take up self-employment ventures across various sectors of the economy, he said.
He said a total of 6,600 young women will be covered under the scheme by the close of the financial year.
The chief secretary said a special task force comprising secretaries of a few departments shall be constituted to look into areas of convergence and also set out the measures for creating employment opportunities in the new and upcoming tourist destinations.

KR Desk