Overview
- The Standing Committee on Rural Development tabled a report in Parliament on Tuesday that said 18.38 lakh people had been trained under DDU-GKY by March 2026 while only 11.94 lakh were reported placed, leaving roughly one-third without documented jobs.
- Reported placement performance plunged in 2025–26 to 47.7% from a three-year average of 77.7%, a fall the government partly attributed to DDU-GKY 2.0 rules that lengthened the minimum qualifying job to six months and changed outcome definitions.
- The committee pointed to major implementation flaws: weak post-placement tracking, low retention monitoring, delayed project approvals after COVID-19, and under‑utilised allocations across DDU-GKY, DAY‑NRLM and RSETIs.
- It recommended near‑100% placement tracking, district placement cells, mandatory industry linkages, stronger post‑placement support including mentorship and retention monitoring, and assessing PIAs on sustained employment rather than initial hires.
- The report highlighted wide state and gender gaps in conversions—Tamil Nadu posted about a 95% placement rate while Uttar Pradesh was near 43%—and warned that lower conversion for women will blunt the scheme’s impact unless childcare, safety and trade choices are addressed.