New Delhi, Feb 10 (IANS): Over 6.50 lakh individuals or youths from minority communities have received training for skill development under the various government schemes, the Parliament was told on Thursday.

Noting that the Ministry of Minority Affairs undertakes several schemes for upliftment of welfare and socio-economic empowerment of the six notified minority communities namely Muslims, Sikhs, Buddhists, Christians, Jains, and Parsis, Minority Affairs Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said that the skill development schemes implemented by his ministry are "Seekho aur Kamao" (Learn and Earn), "Nai Manzil", and the "USTTAD" (Upgrading the Skills and Training in Traditional Arts/Crafts for Development) schemes.

Meanwhile, the Maulana Azad Education Foundation implements the "Gharib Nawaz Employment Scheme", and the National Minorities Development and Finance Corporation (NMDFC) implements "Kaushal Se Kushalta" scheme and the Mahila Samridhi Yojana, he told the Lok Sabha in a written reply.

"The total number of individuals/ youths who have received the skill development training for skill development of minorities under the above mentioned schemes is 6,57,802. Despite the challenges faced due to outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic, the Ministry has been able to successfully complete the employment-oriented skill development training programmes," he said.

Naqvi said that under "Seekho aur Kamao", 85,650 women/girls from minority groups have been trained for Modular Employable Skills (MES) courses since inception till 2016-17.

"From 2017-18 onwards, the Ministry adopted Common Norms completely with NSQF compliant courses. Also, under the Gharib Nawaz Employment Scheme of MAEF, 26,400 women have been trained for MES courses. 381 Project Implementation Agencies (institutions/ societies/organisations/NGOs) have been working with skill development schemes of the Ministry," he added.