Obstacles and Ways to Facilitate Skill Development among Rural Women

The Honorable Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modi has stated that “Today, the world and India need a skilled workforce. If we have to promote the development of our country then our mission has to be skill development’ and `Skilled India”. Skills and knowledge are the engines of economic growth and social development of any country. Women constituted almost 48.5 per cent of the total population of India, but their input to economic action is far beneath the potential. Female workforce participation rate in India stands at 31.8 per cent which is almost half of the male workforce participation rate at 73.2 per cent and these women have also been paid very low wages for the same work as compare to the men due to lack of skills. Skill development among rural women is the necessity of the hour to make them self possessed, self reliant and to enischolar_main in them the ability to be a component of decision making at home and outside. Therefore, there is a great need to properly skill the significantly large work force so that they can became a major part of the economy. Skill development is a key to women empowerment as it leads to enhancing household productivity, employability and income earning opportunities for women. The idea of skill development in India has been greatly acknowledged and programmes and policies like Pradhan Mantra Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY), UDAAN, Standard Training Assessment and Reward (STAR) and many more has been formulated to initiate this concept. Despite the various efforts by the government, there is yet a prolong way to bring the skill development mission to accomplish due to existence of various obstacles in the path of rural women. So, there is great need to identify various obstacles faced by the rural women and ways of facilitating skill development among rural women.