DDU-GKY 2.0 Raises Minimum Placement Period to Six Months

The Ministry of Rural Development has set out where Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana (DDU-GKY) stands as the scheme completes twelve years, and what its upgraded framework, DDU-GKY 2.0, changes. The scheme began on 25 September 2014 under the National Rural Livelihoods Mission, and it pays for placement-linked skill training for youth aged 15 to 35 years from poor rural households.

What the 2.0 framework changes

The upgraded guidelines were notified in May 2025. The sharpest change is in what the scheme accepts as a placement. Earlier a candidate had to hold a job continuously for three months for the training to count; the floor is now six months, and wage employment, self-employment and gig work all qualify, whether the work is continuous or not. A candidate is then tracked for twelve months after joining.

Money that follows the trainee

• A placed candidate receives 7,620 rupees, paid at 1,270 rupees a month for six months.
• A candidate still in work after 365 days, with a break of not more than 60 days, receives a retention amount of 5,000 rupees.
• Upskilling and reskilling are offered once twelve months of placement are complete.
• Yearly funding for a Migration Support Centre has been raised from 10 lakh rupees to as much as 30 lakh rupees.

How a course is built

A course keeps its floor of 576 hours. In a three-month course, 396 hours are domain training and 180 hours are compulsory non-domain training, divided between English communication, employability and life skills, computer and digital literacy, and entrepreneurship.

The numbers behind the scheme

DDU-GKY runs in 31 States and Union Territories through 749 approved projects, 760 active training centres and more than 455 project implementing agencies. Since 2014-15 it has trained more than 18.47 lakh candidates for over 800 job roles and placed more than 12.43 lakh, among them 9.71 lakh women trained. The Union Budget for 2026-27 sets aside 750 crore rupees for it. Two special programmes sit inside the scheme: Roshni, for districts affected by Left-Wing Extremism, and Himayat, for Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.