Andhra Pradesh - Nizamabad   

NGO initiates livelihood training for rural youth

By Ravi Reddy

NIZAMABAD, JULY 23. The Livelihood Advancement Specialist Initiative (TULASI), a scheme launched by Dr. Reddy's Foundation of Hyderabad and Samskar Plan International, a Varni-based Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), is training over 100 rural youth in 76 villages of the district in livelihood trades.

Samskar Plan, which has taken up several livelihood promotion programmes, has tied up with Dr. Reddy's. A 100 rural youth from the project area were selected through an aptitude test for an intensive training programme in hotel management, customer sales and IT enabled services, which is currently on in Nizamabad town.

Focus on sustainable training programmes

The programmes were grounded after a market study to identify potential areas of employment.

According to the Project Director of Samskar Plan, K. H. S. S. Sundar, the programmes are designed to address the problem of rural unemployment. "The current programme hints at more sustainable sources of livelihood than mere loans," he said.

He said that rather than just providing loans, Samskar had repeatedly been calling for families to look for sustainable training programmes. He said he was confident the current drive would yield results and would be a catalyst for its continuation in the future.

Plan to spend Rs. 30 lakhs

Samskar Plan proposes to spend Rs. 30 lakhs in the next few years and target 1,000 rural youth from the sponsored villages of the project area. The current programme is designed with three objectives - to provide a source of sustainable livelihood to at least one member in a family, drive unrest among adolescent youth away and discourage migration for livelihood, he said.

`Youth elated'

Mr. Sunder said the youth undergoing training were elated at the prospects of fruitful employment. A number of the youth, who spoke to The Hindu on Thursday, appeared confident. "My confidence was low before I was selected for the programme," said G. Jayasree of Hegdoli in Kotgir mandal, adding that now she was confident she could "work anywhere in the State."

Shaik Khader of Pothangal in Kotgir mandal said the training was "more important than mere employment." For K. Swati of Old Varni, "the programme, apart from creating employment potential, has invoked new hopes among the youth." N. Chandrakant of Karegaon said the components of the programme were innovative and self-sustaining, while M. Soni of Kollur said the customer service relations training had already provided her an employment opportunity.

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