(a) whether the Union Government has provided any financial assistance to the State Government of Odisha or any Non-Governmental Organisation in Odisha for the purpose of imparting skill development training to hearing impaired youths during the last three years and if so, the details thereof; and
(b) the details and number of hearing empaired youths employed in various sectors after completion of the aforementioned skill development training?
MINISTER OF STATE FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE AND EMPOWERMENT
(SHRI KRISHANPAL GURJAR)
(a) Yes Sir. The Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities(DEPwD) implements an umbrella scheme, namely Scheme for Implementation of Persons with Disabilities Act(SIPDA) which has a component for Skill Development for PwDs between the age of 15 to 59, including hearing impaired youths. Under this component, the Department launched the National Action Plan(NAP) for Skill Development of Persons with Disabilities(PwDs) in March, 2015 which is implemented across the country including the state of Odisha through which skilling of PwDs is conducted through a network of empanelled training partners(ETPs) comprising Government organizations (National Institutes/National Handicapped Finance and Development Corporation/Composite Regional Centre/Other Government Orgs) and Non-Govt. Organisations(NGOs). An amount of Rs. 73.36 lakhs has been released to ETPs of State of Odisha for skill training of 1000 PwDs(including hearing impaired) under NAP during the last 3 years.
(b) the number of PwDs(including hearing impaired youths) employed in various sectors after completion of the aforementioned skill development training in the state of Orissa is 666.
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