Organisation : Ministry of Women and Child Development
Scheme Name : STEP Support to Training & Employment Programme for Women
Applicable States/ UTs : All Over India
Website : http://www.wcd.nic.in/schemes/support-training-and-employment-programme-women-step
Details : https://www.statusin.in/uploads/38597-STEP.pdf
WCD STEP Scheme
The Ministry has been administering ‘Support to Training and Employment Programme for Women (STEP) Scheme’ since 1986-87 as a ‘Central Sector Scheme’.
Related : Women & Child Development Nari Shakti Puruskar Scheme : www.statusin.in/37073.html
The STEP Scheme aims to provide skills that give employability to women and to provide competencies and skill that enable women to become self-employed/entrepreneurs.
The Scheme is intended to benefit women who are in the age group of 16 years and above across the country. The grant under the Scheme is given to an institution/ organisation including NGOs directly and not the States/ UTs.
The assistance under STEP Scheme will be available in any sector for imparting skills related to employability and entrepreneurship, including but not limited to the Agriculture, Horticulture, Food Processing, Handlooms, Tailoring, Stitching, Embroidery, Zari etc, Handicrafts, Computer & IT enable services along with soft skills and skills for the work place such as spoken English, Gems & Jewellery, Travel & Tourism, Hospitality.
Objectives Of The Scheme
The scheme has 2 fold objectives viz.
a. To provide skills that give employability to women.
b. To provide competencies and skills that enable women to become self-employed/entrepreneurs.
Target Groups
The scheme is intended to benefit women who are in the age group of 16 years and above.
Eligible Organizations/ PIAs
Grants-in-aid under the STEP programme may be given to an institution having a distinct legal entity as under :
(a) Institutions or organizations set up as Autonomous Organization under a specific statute or as a Society registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860 or Indian Trusts Act, 1882 (Not for profit) or other statutes.
(b) Voluntary Organizations or Non-Government Organizations registered under the Societies Registration Act, Indian Trust Act carrying out activities which promote the objectives of the STEP programme, with adequate financial and other resources, credibility and experience of the type of activities to be undertaken.
(c) Co-operative Societies.
PIAs Selection Criteria
(a) The NGO should have signed up in the NGO-Partnership (NGO-PS) Portal of the NITI Aayog with all self-declared details and should have obtained a Unique ID.
The Unique ID should be mandatorily quoted by the NGO at the time of application for grants. NGOs shall update their data base in the Portal every year.
(b) The NGO should also have signed up in the portal of this Ministry with the Unique ID of NITI Aayog.
(c) The organization must be in existence at least for 3 years and have carried out activities for imparting skills related to employability and entrepreneurship during last 3 years. At the time of filing the application, the organization must have a positive net worth in at least 2 previous years
Number Of Beneficiaries
Approval would be given only for such number as are considered viable and the maximum number of beneficiaries in a project shall not exceed 200.
Training will be imparted in batches with number that are manageable, within the infrastructure and training capacity of the organization and in groups that can be imparted due attention by the instructors.
For trades that use equipment/ small machines/ computers, the batches will typically be determined by the number of such equipment that is available.
Course Duration & Training Hours
Skill development will be domain specific demand led skill training activity leading to employment or any outcome oriented activity that enables a participant to acquire a skill duly assessed and certified by an independent third party agency, and which enables her to get wage/self-employment leading to increased earnings, and/ or improved working conditions, such as getting formal certification for hitherto informal skills.
The project in any case must ensure a training input spread over 200 hours in a 3 month programme and 400 hours in a 6 months programme (including practical and/or on the job training).