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Bullets, more than ballots, ruled this belt. And, children had ambitions of joining the revolution against a "corrupt system" that neglected their area.
Now, a number of youth in the Naxal-hit regions of Odisha and Andhra Pradesh dream of jobs at companies such as Ashok Leyland, Cafe Coffee Day, Godrej Industries and ASAL, in cities outside their states. What brought the change? Gram Tarang Employability Training Services (GTETS), the vocational wing of the Paralakhemundi (in Odisha's Gajapati district)-based Centurion University of Technology and Management.
The university offers undergraduate, post-graduate and doctoral courses in engineering & technology, management and applied sciences.
Along with government entities such as the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC), Gram Tarang, started in 2009, imparts skills to tribal youth in the Naxal-affected districts of Odisha and Andhra Pradesh. A region many termed unproductive is now bearing fruit for GTETS .
| GRAM TARANG: MAKING RURAL YOUTHS JOB-READY |
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This social-entrepreneurial initiative focuses on skill training to enhance the employability and self-employment prospects of youth, from school dropouts to engineering graduates. The programme was first started in Paralakhemundi in the latter half of the past decade, with a machinist training programme for school dropouts, in partnership with the Union Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises.
GTETS imparts vocational skills to youth across 29 trades in sectors such as apparel, engineering, manufacturing, fabrication, automobiles and retail. The duration of the programmes range from a month to two years.
For operations, it has a hub and spoke model, with satellite centres complementing primary ones. GTETS's turnover rose from Rs 1 crore in 2009-10 to Rs 6.5 crore in 2012-13.
It is targeting a turnover of Rs 80-100 crore by 2020. The entity is expected to break even by the next financial year.
Changing lives
Thanks to GTETS's month-long industrial stitching training programme, Pinki Khatei, 23, from Jamukoli village in Khurda district of Odisha, is now able to fund the education of her 19-year-old handicapped brother, who is pursuing a bachelor's degree. After the course, she secured a job at an apparel company in Bangalore. After a one-and-half-year stint at the company in Bangalore and Thiruvananthapuram, she now works as a trainer at GTETS. She has contributed a substantial sum towards the weddings of her elder sisters.
"Earlier, my family faced financial constraints. Now, I am able to support my younger brother," says an ecstatic Khatei, now earning Rs 7,000 a month.
Aditya Parida, an apprentice with a Samsung mobile manufacturing unit at Noida, is another feather in the Gram Tarang success cap. Parida recalls the hardships his family faced after his father, a mason, was paralysed in 2010. Last year, he joined a GTETS computer numerical control training programme. "I am now earning Rs 5,500 a month and contributing a major chunk of my income to my family," he says.
Pratima Haro, a tribal girl from Odisha's Sambalpur district, says, "Before joining the industrial stitching course at GTETS, I supported my family by working as a farm labourer." However, after a two-month GTETS industrial stitching training programme, she secured a job at Stanfab Apparels, a garment manufacturer in Chennai. Here, she earns Rs 4,820 a month (including bonus); lodging and food are provided free by the company. Haro counts herself lucky.
Unique model
"When we were looking for capital-intensive skill development programmes across the country, this was one of the first proposals we got for financial aid. What attracted us to this start-up was the Naxal-torn terrain it worked in. They are among NSDC's best-performing partners," says Dilip Chenoy, chief executive and managing director of NSDC.
Other government programmes Gram Tarang has tie-ups with include Aajeevika Skill Development Programme, Swarnjayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana and National Rural Livelihood Mission. It also has tie-ups with companies such as Ashok Leyland, Cafe Coffee Day, Godrej Industries and ASAL, as well as apparel export units such as Shahi Exports, Cotton Blossom, K Mohan and Texport Industries.
"So far, we have trained about 23,000 youths and 84 per cent of them are placed. We aim to skill a hundred thousand youths by 2020. Our purpose is to give competence-based training, not theory-based certification, in line with industry demands," says Mukti Mishra, chairman, Gram Tarang. From its stronghold of Odisha and Andhra Pradesh, it plans to expand into a few regions in Assam, as well as Noida in Uttar Pradesh.
The Gram Tarang campaign is aided by its other arms - Gram Tarang Inclusive Development Services (GTIDS), Gram Tarang Foods and Gram Tarang Self-Help Cooperative.
GTIDS, which aims at financial inclusion in rural and tribal regions, operates across eight states and 6,000 gram panchayats. It provides business correspondents for technology service provider Genpact on behalf of six nationalised banks - Andhra Bank, Allahabad Bank, Punjab National Bank, UCO Bank, United Bank of India and Union Bank of India. This year, it plans to extend financial services to 2,000 gram panchayats. GTIDS, through its 6,000 banking correspondents, has opened a little more than three million no-frills accounts in eight backward states and disbursed about Rs 500 crore towards the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme and pensions to agri-labourers, the elderly, widows, and physically and mentally challenged people.
While Gram Tarang Foods is involved in processing traditional crops primarily grown by tribal farmers, Gram Tarang Self-Help Cooperative deals with paddy seed processing through cooperative societies. It aims to process 6,020 quintals of paddy seeds, using modern technologies.
"About 45 per cent of our students are sponsored through government contributions and 30 per cent by companies; the remaining 25 per cent have to pay on their own. Including food and accommodation, expenses for a student are about Rs 7,000 a month," says Mishra.
Road ahead
Centurion University of Technology and Management, the parent body of Gram Tarang, has stepped in to help urban slum dwellers. It is trying to make them self-employable and build entrepreneurship capacity by providing skill training. The university, together with the department of housing & urban devel-opment (government of Odisha) and the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation, is involved in a pilot project to set up an urban micro business centre under the urban self-employment programme of the Swarna Jayanti Sahari Rojgar Yojana. "The project is actually to facilitate micro-enterprises among urban slum dwellers who are typically rural-urban migrants. We are setting up an urban micro business centre at one of the Bhubaneswar's largest and most prominent slums, Kargil Basti," said Sobhi Mohanty, project director (urban micro business centre).
Gram Tarang plans to expand into Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Assam and Meghalaya.
Umesh Agarwal
The advantage of this course is once people come into the Gram Tarang fold, they are moulded by the companies with which the institute has memoranda of understanding. The entire curriculum is designed according to the needs of prospective employers. What attracted me was Gram Tarang was more focused on women empowerment and the majority of its students were girls aged 15-30.
For its students who secure jobs, the organisation arranges for travel. The Odisha government is also working with the organisation. One advantage is 40-45 per cent of the funds they require comes from the government, while the major portion of the rest is accounted for by companies. Here, the economic burden on students, in terms of residential expenses, is less.
However, one drawback is the kind of salary graduates get. Though high in terms of Gajapati, it isn't enough to sustain oneself in a metro city. The institute should also introduce many types of courses, apart from the current 29 trades. Moreover, it should rope in more companies and cover more states, possibly even the northeast.
Umesh Agarwal is a filmmaker. He has made a documentary for the Centre on skill development in Naxal-hit areas of Odisha.
