In an effort to augment the income of the poor families, the centre has planned to impart technical skills to one members of each family. According to a media report, the rural development ministry has sent a proposal to the Cabinet saying that at least one member of around 5 crore rural poor families under the BPL category would be imparted technical skill. This will make them eligible for semi-technical jobs in the rural or urban areas.

A national business daily quoted Rita Sharma, secretary, department of rural development as saying that the focus of the new step will be to substantially scale up the SGSY during the 11th plan period for including at least one member of each BPL families in the country. Sharma further said that the purpose was to augment incomes of BPL families by at least Rs 2,000 to Rs 3,000 per month by creating self employment opportunities. She also said that the ministry was yet to work out budget for taking up SGSY in mission mode.

The centre had in 2006 launched the National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme. It was meant to guarantee 100 days of manual labour to each rural household.