HYDERABAD: In an effort to channelise the energies of underprivileged young adults in a productive manner, in six strife torn districts of Jammu and Kashmir, Dr. Reddy Foundation (DRF), a Hyderabad based Non-Government organisation has been roped in to create a new village based business school-Grameen Labs.

Under its Livelihood Advancement Business School(Labs), DRF has successfully trained 35,000 young adults under various collaborative initiatives with Government of Andhra Pradesh and World Bank since 1999.

Now this expertise is being extended to Ananthnag, Budgam, Phulwara, Kupwara, Baramulla, Kargil in Jammu and Kashmir.

Job oriented skills for entry level jobs such as data entry, air-conditioning repair, etc, will be imparted through a three-month classroom and three month on-the job apprenticeship training programme.

For youth to be weaned away from undesirable activities, proper guidance and training is required, says Minu Abraham, from DRF, head of the project.

Local economy

In the case of J&K, the team has identified some local economy jobs such as veterinary assistants, hospital care assistants, saffron graders. "IT-enabled services, customer relations and sales, retailing, hospitality, tourism, hospital assistants," she says are some skills to be imparted in the first phase. Some companies have also been identified in Delhi for placements.

But Jammu and Kashmir is not the only State that is under this Rs. 14 crore special project of the Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India.

And in six districts of Jammu and Kashmir, the awareness programme through road shows is on. Classroom training will start here in the first week of October.

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