The Yuva Nidhi Scheme will provide unemployment allowance to 2022-23 graduates and diploma holders in Karnataka. In merely 72 hours the Karnataka government till December 30th, 2023 i.e., by Saturday evening received as many as 14071 applications under the Yuva Nidhi Scheme. Bengaluru Urban, Belagavi, and Raichur received the maximum number of applications. Bengaluru Urban has the highest number of higher education institutions in Karnataka. Hence, it can be expected that the district will see increased unemployment in Karnataka.
Bengaluru got 1596 applications, 1528 applications received from Belagavi and Raichur has seen as many as 816 graduate and diploma holders applying for the scheme. Though Raichur is considered one of the backward districts in Karnataka comes under the Hyderabad-Karnataka region where no development has been seen for decades. Whereas, Belagavi is the second largest district in Karnataka with 15 taluks and 18 assembly segments. However, the lowest number of applications come from Kalaburagi with just 42 applicants, followed by Chamrajnagar and Udupi with 75 and 76 applicants, respectively. Though Kalaburagi is the home district of Minister Sharan Prakash Patil who’s the head of the skill development department which has brought out the scheme.
According to Skill Development Commissioner R. Ragapriya, “Only after the applications are processed, we can consider who is truly unemployed. The number of applications received from each district does not mean that there is higher unemployment.” As per the statistics the maximum number of applications have been received from North Karnataka with 7033 applications of the 14071 applications from the 13 districts of Kalyana Karnataka and Kittur Karnataka regions. Meanwhile, there is a lot of speculation and debate that there is a lack of enrolment at the grassroots level and there is a thinking that a substantial number of graduates and diploma holders are enrolling in the scheme and giving a perception that unemployment is quite widespread.