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Nai Manzil Scheme

Nai Manzil Scheme is an initiative by the Central Government of India to promote the development of the Minority community through providing integrated education, skill development training and livelihood initiative. Under this scheme, concessional finance is offered by the Government for the upgradation of entrepreneurial skills and income generation activities. The programme’s focus is on skilling and placement in the formal sector and also includes vocational training for the welfare of Minorities. Let us look in detail about the Nai Manzil Scheme in this article.

To know about the Skill Development Allowance (SDA) Scheme

Objectives of the Scheme

The scheme aims to support the poor Minority youth and help them with sustainable employment opportunities that can help them to be integrated with mainstream economic activities. The below listed are the primary objectives that are as follows:

• To mobilise youth from minority communities and provide them with the formal education and certification up to the level 8th or 10th through the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) or any other State open schooling systems.
• To provide with integrated Skill Development Training to the youths in the market-driven skills.
• To provide minority youths with at least 70% placements in jobs which would lead them to earn basic minimum wages and the programme also provides them with other social protection entitlements such as Provident Funds, Employee State Insurance (ESI) etc.
• To raise knowledge and sensitization in health and life skills.

Eligibility Criteria

This program will set out across all regions in the country. The following are the eligibility criteria to avail the benefits under this scheme.

• The beneficiaries should belong to the Minority community
• In the States and UTs where other minority communities that are notified by the respective Governments exist, they would also be considered eligible for the programme but they will not occupy more than 5% of the total seats.
• The trainee/ beneficiaries must have the age limit between 17 to 35 years.
• Certain particular minority population within a non-minority district or any city will also be eligible under this scheme.
• The trainees/ beneficiaries must belong to the Below Poverty Line (BPL) population both from urban and rural areas.

The minimum qualification of trainee/ beneficiaries must be as per the NIOS / equivalent that is defined below:

For Class VIII Bridge Program: The applicant must possess Class V to pass or failed school leaving certificate or equivalent of education or must provide self-certificate stating his/her capability to pursue this course.

For Class X Bridge Program: The applicant must Class VIII pass school leaving certificate or equivalent of education or provide self-certificate stating his/her capability to pursue this course. 30% of the seats will be earmarked for women applicants and 5% of the seats will be earmarked for the people with disability belonging to the minority community under the scheme. In the case of reserved categories as prescribed under this scheme remain vacant, these vacant seats would be treated as unreserved.

Project Financing

It is the Central Sector Scheme which will be implemented directly by the Ministry through empanelled eligible organizations. 100% cost of the approved projects would be borne by the Ministry as per prescribed financial norms. Under the Scheme, the cost of various components would be eligible for funding is given below:

S.No.	Broad Items	Details
1.	Mobilisation	IEC materials Travel
2.	Identification and Selection	Counselling of participants Pre-selection screening
3.	Cost for education (As per the norms laid down by NIOS)	Enrolment under Open Schooling Salary/ Remuneration of teachers Rent and infrastructure Teaching Learning Materials Equipment and Consumables Examination fees and Administrative cost
4.	Skill Training (As per the norms laid down by the Ministry)	Local-level skill gap analysis Rent of space and infrastructure Remuneration of instructors Equipment and consumables Examination fees Administrative costs
5.	Placement and Tracking Process	Mobilisation of the local industry Contact with the past trainees Tracking through phone calls and visits
6.	Reporting and monitoring	Regular reporting on progress in terms of targets and expenditure

Release of Funds

On approval of the proposed project, the funds will be released as per the General Financial Rules in the following three instalments as below:

First Installment: The first instalment will be released after the project approval provided by the Ministry of Minority Affairs and the getting into of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the parties

Second Installment: The second instalment will be released based on compliance with the following:

• The utilisation of the first instalment of 70% is supported only by the Audited Utilization Certificate (UC) that have to be submitted to the Ministry of Minority Affairs stating the total expenditure incurred by the NIOS and PIA and continuation of training with at least 70% of initial trainees continuing.
• The submission of audit reports of the project as soon as due.
• The second instalment will be released on the basis of a number of trainees completed training and subsequent adjustments will be made with respect to 1st Instalment.
• It would also be connected to the outcomes that are monitored by the PMU.

Third Installment: The third instalment is released upon the project completion report as per the norms prescribed by the Ministry of Minority Affairs.

• The project completion means the completion of educational part, skill development of 3months, placement of minimum 70% trained applicants within three months of the course completion, and their tracking for the period of 1 year. The entire project duration cycle would come around a period of more than 2 years. A professional PMU is being set up to assess the outcomes and project completion.
• The submission of the audited Utilization Certificate (UC).
• Deliverables, as requested in the projects, are met and also verified by the PIA through random physical verification.

Online Application Procedure

The MIS portal will also provide online application by applicants who wish to avail the benefits under this scheme, and by mobilizers who wish to register such applicants as beneficiaries. The MIS portal will also be announced widely as part of the advocacy efforts of this scheme and will be made available through the Common Service Centres (CSCs) of the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) and the National Labour Market Information System (LMIS) which is being developed by the Ministry of Skills Development and Entrepreneurship.

Inspection Process

The Government will have the power to inspect the projects. The inspection record will be submitted to the Ministry by the Government in the prescribed format. The third-party monitoring by the independent agencies would also be envisaged.