The interactions of the members of SEED during their professional lives, well establishes the fact that the youth of our country at present are at a crossroads. They are in a situation where the traditional icons of honesty, integrity, patriotism, coming-up-the-hard-way, are breaking down at a pace which may seem unattainable for the people concerned about halting this process.
There is a disadvantaged section of youth which is frustrated because of a lack of options and openings. The reasons for this are nothing different from the ones we enumerated in our school days' essays of the late 70's. In other words few things seem to have changed for this section !! Mitigatory attempts made by the State have been marginally successful. Even the understanding of worthy employment, in the villages and small towns, has not gone beyond the point where any young person looks forward only to a government job and is either unaware of any other option or is not equipped to make use of the opportunity if it comes his/her way. There is a need for making a concerted and focused attempt whereby this section is either made employable in the changing context or is trained to run their own enterprises if they have some small investable finance.
There also are organizations which are working for the development of poorer sections of society and are always on the lookout of individuals who can contribute their time and lives for the society but the crop of such persons is on the wane for reasons not far for us to see. The capable youth are being pulled into the rat-race for power and money, by means good and/or bad. Yet we do come across young individuals who are concerned about the decay and would like to contribute their mite to stall it. These youth need a platform and an environment in which they can not only feel accepted but also can sharpen their tools of analysis. It would be in the interest of society at large if we can tap the potential of such individuals not only by lighting the fires of idealism but also exposing them to options of employment other than the ones visible and traditionally desirable. This also channelises their anger at the disturbing reality into more creative and constitutional forms of expressing dissent which is necessary to maintain the health of any democracy, otherwise there always is the danger of such concerned individuals keeping quiet for the anti-socials to rule the roost.
Moreover, given the present environment of dwindling livelihood options for the poor and the pressures on existing employment options on account of, among other factors, structural adjustment, there is a growing body of people, especially youth and women, from these sections of society which are unable to deal with market forces and generate viable economic lives. Even the Planning Commission of India estimates that additional employment will have to be generated for about one crore people every year during the 8th Plan Period and the unorganized sector will have to account for about 90% of these jobs.
The environment in which NGOs in India have been functioning has changed radically in the last couple of decades. NGOs have progressed from implementing only relief and rehabilitation activities to undertaking development in a broader sense. Today their visibility is much greater and their access to policy making apparatuses of the government and to the media far more effective. Many professionals from all trades have also opted for a career in this field and their is no dearth of institutions specializing in training, documentation, networking, etc. Many NGOs at present focus on providing services (health, drinking water, etc.), or work with artisans on small-scale activities or work with collectives towards income generation through utilization of common property resources. However, a dispassionate examination of the national scene will indicate that the pace of NGOs in creating a sizeable number of sustainable livelihoods and in generation of meaningful incomes is rather slow. Some of the reasons cited include lack of clear enterprise-development goals, excessive reliance on subsidies, lack of understanding of business principles, etc. Moreover, what one witnesses today is a vicious cycle of degradation of the natural resource base, marginalization of the poor and alienation from the land. With the rapid growth of the population and the selective industrialization that is being practiced today, the productivity of land can only decline. The implication of this is that NGOs will have to recognise the fact that in the future there will be an increasingly larger number of people on the lookout for alternative non-farm livelihoods to break the cycle of deprivation. this is the challenge which NGOs, or a section of NGO sector, have to take up in order to make development meaningful at this turn of the century and in the next.
Thus what we are arguing for is a more professional approach on the part of NGOs towards development of sustainable livelihoods. Our approach should recognise the need for selection and preparation of the deprived sections of our society for enterprise management and for enabling the people to gain access to financial, technical, training and other resources which are available in the mainstream economy. Such an approach will result in the transformation of the poor from 'recipient' of official charity undertaking prescribed 'projects', into self-reliant human beings who can chart their own paths of development.
In such a scenario SEED would like to sow seeds of hope and options among these sections.
i. We shall tap the already existing avenues for such programmes viz. the National Service Scheme (NSS) setup in the colleges and also work with the concerned individuals who respond to our advertisements and presentations in their institutions.
ii. The formal and/or informal groups of unemployed youth in the villages and mofussil towns of the districts shall be encouraged to participate and send their members for the various programmes. Support, training and assistance at all possible levels shall be extended to them.
iii. We shall motivate, train and support the youth and youth groups from disadvantaged communities to take up options for meaningful employment and/or business.
SEED proposes to initiate a process in the above mentioned geographical area whereby we are able to select a group of youth from Std. XII onwards who can be either trained to be gainfully employed in some government or non-government concern or are able to earn a livelihood by running their own profitable enterprises. The idea is to select individuals from an early stage and follow them up to the stage where they can be gainfully employed. SEED plans an involvement of at least three years for results to be tangible and that make a meaningful difference in the livelihoods of the youth of the area.
Concerted efforts shall be made to establish contacts with the schools, colleges and youth groups -- especially in the small towns and mofussil areas -- to spread an awareness about the different means of gainful employment and business through seminars and presentations. These seminars are proposed to be of two types. Firstly, they should be able to assist the participants in charting out a career and secondly, they should be able to facilitate a personal growth in the participants. These activities would not be enough. They will be reinforced by Skill Development Workshops and Leadership Development Camps. The section of youth which has some investable surplus and also exhibits an aptitude for business shall be selected through formal and non-formal means and given special training for running small businesses. They shall also be linked up with other financing and marketing setups in the government and non-government sector.
To develop presentation skills -- oral and written.
To prepare for facing interviews for employment or marketing of skills and products.
To develop skills for scanning the environment for opportunity.
The methodologies shall comprise lecture-cum-demonstrations, structured experiential exercises and solo and group presentations.
iv. Orientation in career counseling (for teachers).
This are a two-day long program for selected teachers of the various schools from the rural and mofussil towns of Ahmedabad district. The objectives of the program are the following;
To expose the teachers to the various aspects of starting a full fledged career counseling centers in their schools especially keeping in mind the changing market scenario and the employment opportunities thrown up in the process.
To train the teachers in aspects of conducting aptitudes tests for their students.
The program is conducted in retreat settings and the methodology adopted is of lectures by subject experts and structured exercises.
{You can access the Report of our earlier program by CLICKING HERE}
These are four days long intensive exercises with the following objectives ;
To expose the youth to a milieu and a way of life different from the ones that they are used to.
To make them explore the various aspects of leadership in a participatory manner.
To invite and encourage them to explore the blocks, within themselves, that prevent them from achieving their full potential and look beyond the existing socio-cultural prescriptions.
To develop presentation skills in participants.
This programme is carried out in retreat settings and the methodologies comprise the same as in Skill Development Workshops viz. lecture-cum-demonstrations, structured experiential exercises and solo and group presentations. The basic differences in the two programmes are that the LDCs are more intensive exercises and are towards the end of our overall interventions, at a stage where the participants launch their careers or enterprises, as the cases may be.
vi. Entrepreneurship Development Programme.
This will be a six week long course which will follow a standard module as is the case with all such programmes assisted by the Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India (EDII). The program is fully funded by the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD). SEED shall be entitled to the funding of the programme by virtue of one of its staff member being an accredited trainer for such programmes.
The objectives of the programme would be as follows ;
To identify and select people who need sustainable livelihoods.
To develop a package of precursors of entrepreneurial action and relate this to the people in need.
To extend management, technical and networking support to these individuals/groups who would like to set up their own units.
To establish links with public financing, marketing and other support institutions, suppliers and consumers.
The methodology followed would be of lectures, exposure for hands-on experience, case studies and structured business games.
