The Hindu : New Delhi News : Unique initiative to bring the deprived to mainstream

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Sep 20, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

Unique initiative to bring the deprived to mainstream

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, SEPT. 19. "I was doing nothing at all in my life. All I did was to roam around with friends teasing girls on the road in my area. Today, I play my part in running the mid-day meal scheme of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi," says Pawan Kumar, a high-school dropout who after having been trained in a unique Livelihood Advancement Business School (LABS), earns over 8,000 to 10,000 per month these days.

Like Pawan, Henna was trained in LABS for a period of three months and the result -- she is currently working with Pizza Corner. "I would get up at 4 a.m. to finish my house work before coming to LABS. I was happy to do so because I knew it was changing my life," she recalls.

Pawan and Henna are not alone. More than 300 students -- most of them school dropouts were trained under this unique initiative of Dr. Reddy's Foundation, which claims to be running 47 such centres across the country. In Delhi, the programme ran for one year in the Govindpuri slums and the children were identified by the non-government organisation, Community Aid Sponsorship Programme (CASP) through an arrangement with PLAN, an international funding agency.

The valedictory function of the year-long programme was held in the Capital this past Friday and as bright eyed, well dressed young people assembled at the Chinmaya Mission Auditorium -- where the function was held -- to greet their classmates -- the "big day" proved to be more than a celebration for them. And cheering them were Satish Reddy, Managing Director of Dr. Reddy's Laboratories; Nalini Gangadharan, Executive Director of the Foundation, Verity from PLAN and Bhagyashree Dengle from CASP.

The new-economy livelihood promotion programme has been exclusively custom-designed for school dropouts, unemployed secondary graduates, street youth, retrenched workers, migrant youth and resettlement community members. The programme supports both employment opportunity oriented workforce preparation as well as tiny micro-enterprise development. As for the curriculum, it has been designed after extensive market research and in conformity with the market needs.

The curriculum and practical training modules are tailor-made based on inputs from the corporates, businesses and market linkages with NGOs and networks. Among the corporates who have employed the trained LABS students include Shopper's Stop, Pizza Corner, Hutch, Idea, Reliance, McDonalds, Nirula's and Comesum.

"Our Delhi centre has had an outstanding 85 per cent placement rate and while 10 per cent have gone in for higher education, the rest have started their own enterprises," says Ms. Gangadharan, adding that LABS was their way of giving back to society what they get from it.

"There are a large number of youth across the country who have dreams and ambitions but no way of realising them because of their financial difficulties or family problems. They need someone to guide them and train them in relevant skills. On the other hand, there are corporates who require entry level workers. LABS is our attempt to bridge this divide," she adds.

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