Asma Majid
In an era where girls are acing every other exam and outdoing their male counterparts, Shazia Hamid is a misfit. By the cold, winter-muted waters of Lidder in her native village of Pahalgam, in south Kashmir, she sits thinking:
“If money does all the talking, why run after degrees and qualifications?”
Thus, after having cleared her matriculation with first division, she has managed to make her parents proud, but deep down, she is still far from being content. At seventeen, when all the girls of her age are planning to pursue higher education, Shazia wants to evade the trap of formal education ending in unemployment and an eventual disappointment. Instead, she wants to learn a skill and earn for herself and her family. But the skill training centres in her vicinity demand a fee that falls too heavy on her pocket. She has heard of government schemes aimed at vocational training that pledge potential work and independence. One of them, she is told, is in Baramulla. The world already lands in front of her like a closed door because Baramulla, she has heard, is ‘too far’.
“It’s a land unfamiliar”, she recalls her mother saying apologetically. “If it were near, we would happily send you.”
The NAVYA initiative (Nurturing Aspirations through Vocational Training for Young Adolescent Girls) is a pilot government programme launched on 24 June 2025 by the Ministry of Women and Child Development and the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship to equip adolescent girls (aged 16 – 18 years, minimum Class 10 pass outs) with job-ready skills.
The programme was designed as part of the Viksit Bharat@2047 vision with a focus on vocational training in emerging and non-traditional sectors such as digital marketing, cybersecurity, AI-enabled services, drone assembly, CCTV and solar PV installation, graphic design and other industry-relevant fields. Besides, it also incorporates holistic modules on interpersonal skills, financial literacy, workplace safety and health, and seeks to connect training with internships, apprenticeships and employment opportunities, aiming to boost both confidence and economic independence among participating girls.
For someone like Shazia, these fields are not mere abstract categories. She has watched videos about Artificial Intelligence as a formidable tool in multiple sectors of economy on borrowed data packs and heard her cousins speak about it as something that is going to ‘revolutionize the world’.
“I am curious to learn about Artificial Intelligence,” Shazia says in an excited tone and a sparkle in her eyes.
Although she does not exactly know what all Artificial Intelligence is truly capable of achieving, but she knows that it sounds like the future.
To begin with, NAVYA was rolled out across 27 districts in 19 states across the country, including the aspirational and north-eastern districts, with courses delivered through existing frameworks such as Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY).
As of December 2025, data from the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship shows that only one district in Jammu & Kashmir – Baramulla has been included under the programme’s current coverage. Other districts such as Kupwara or Anantnag do not appear in the official list of participating regions.
The decision to limit the access of a beneficial and constructive scheme as NAVYA to a single district across Jammu and Kashmir has raised eyebrows and aroused disapproval as the UT figures among the top 5 states/UTs of the country with the highest female unemployment rates in the 15-29 age group as per Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) 2023-24 data. As such, while the inclusion of Baramulla in the programme proudly places Jammu and Kashmir within the national framework of targeted skill building, it as well puts the adolescent girls from other districts at a disadvantage by keeping the programme out of their immediate reach.
Dr. Bisma Jehangir, a Research Associate and career counsellor based in Anantnag, who works closely with youngsters, especially women, in guiding and helping them choose their careers, underlines the possible structural limitations in implementation of government schemes.
“It is a fact well acquiesced that government schemes, by design, begin small. But in places where economic opportunities are already unevenly distributed, the choice of district can determine who receives structured support and who continues to rely on fragmented, informal options.”
She further adds, “If the aim is to intervene at a critical age – when girls are transitioning from school to work or higher education – the question is not whether training exists somewhere, but whether it exists where they are.”
For Shazia, however, these structural explanations translate into a simpler reality – distance.
While tareas along the Lidder are not entirely devoid of skill options, most available courses remain limited in scope and scale. In the vicinity and adjoining areas, private computer institutes offer basic diploma courses in computer applications, tally, or graphic design, often charging between ₹5,000 to ₹12,000 for short-term certifications. Tailoring and beauty training programmes are occasionally conducted through self-help groups or local centres, but these are largely informal and concentrated in traditional trades. For girls from villages such as Pahalgam, reaching the district headquarters itself requires long road travel of about 45 kms and a dependable transport. More importantly, there is little in the form of structured, girl-focused vocational training aligned with emerging sectors such as digital marketing, cybersecurity or drone technology, categories which are comprehensively covered under the NAVYA scheme. The gap, therefore, is not absolute absence, but absence of access to diversified, industry-linked skill pathways for girls at a critical age.
As such, in the absence of diversified, structured training at the right age, many girls eventually gravitate toward conventional degree courses such as the Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Science, not always out of conviction, but because it remains the safest available path – affordable and close. Others choose familiar options that promise modest income but little upward mobility. The shift is gradual, almost invisible – ambition adjusting itself to geography.
While Shazia and others like her remain outside NAVYA’s current coverage, officials from the Jammu and Kashmir Skill Development Department maintain that the programme is a centrally launched pilot initiative, with coverage determined through a national identification of aspirational and underserved districts.
As dusk envelops Pahalgam, Lidder dribbles languidly, slipping past rocks, bending around borders, guided by its own current. Shazia, watches the scene with retreating footsteps, her inner-being mimicking the river waters. She does not want to ‘fit in’. She wants to move forward, outward and beyond the coordinates assigned to her. She does not want to adjust to the distance, she wants to outrun it.
The author is V-YES Media Research Fellow,Jammu and Kashmir Association of Social Workers (JKASW), can be reached at asma.majid786@yahoo.com
