A one-third success rate and a plethora of problems is the outcome of the ambitious Himayat in its first phase. But the union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh by doubling the incentive for the candidates, indicated New Delhi will do everything to make it a grand success, reports R S GULL.
They are a five-girl group from a Baramulla village that India’s Rural Development Ministry believes are fit to be the poster-girls of the success of central government’s Rs 235 crore Skill, Empowerment and Employment (SEE) scheme that J&K bureaucrat Yedullah renamed Himayat. Most of the group they were part of returned. But the ‘gang’ fought every single problem they encountered in Chandigarh to stay put and grow. They are now in AirTel BPO managing the customer call traffic.
“It excites that sometimes we get a call from a customer from our village and we say wow, we are not far away,” says Rubeena, who sounds an inspiration. “It is otherwise great that our families trusted us and permitted us to move out for the first time in life and permitted us to earn and spend.”
The five girls were identified and trained by the IL&FS in business process outsourcing (BPO) basics. As the hunt for their placement started, the project implementation agency (PIA) could get some berths in a Chandigarh BPO that Vodafone ran. The families were initially not ready but after IL&FS suggested all the five girls would stay and work together, their parents agreed.
In Chandigarh, Vodafone hired them for Rs 4400 a month each. “It was very difficult, a lot of work, it was so much of work that 20 boys fled within three days,” said Rubeena. “Within a month or so we were also thinking of leaving the job and come home.”
It was at that time when a Kashmir girl Parveena, who was a team leader in AirTel BPO, approached them with a better package. The deal settled at Rs 5800 a month. While four girls are working with AirTel, one continues to be with Vodafone but all the five put up together.
The five live jointly in a single room that lacks even a TV set. “We manage to save Rs 3000 a month and that is just a start,” insists Rubeena. “Our families are not demanding but we did a lot of shopping for them.” In Chandigarh, they spent time in seeing every attraction in the city and more recently they watched a T-20 match that cost them Rs 400 each.
The five girls are amongst 17 females who were placed in Chandigarh and have not quit their jobs. Right now around 120 youth from J&K are in this union territory and most of them are males placed with various retail chains and BPOs by the IL&FS. The government and the PIA credit Showkat Ahmad, one of the scheme managers for retaining this lot, in apparently adverse conditions in which it is difficult to find rented spaces. The IL&FS that has groomed most of its first batch in Chandigarh has hired a 90-bed space to offer a joint station for them to live in and is running a 24×7 counseling centre to remain in touch with these trainees.
Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh announced that soon after festival of Eid is over, he would fly to Chandigarh for a dinner meeting with all the 120 youth to interact with them and understand their problems. “The visit will help in sensitising the Chandigarh government about the project and the boys and girls that are being deputed to the market under the scheme,” Jairam told reporters.
There have been problems in finding adequate space on rent for thee boys and girls because of the prevailing suspicion that is otherwise attached to Kashmiris opting to work outside the state. There have been certain instances of harassment as well. Other places where these trained boys and girls are being deployed is the NCR but they number is less than 20.
Himayat is a Rs 235 crore project that Dr C Rangarajan conceived in wake of 2010 unrest. Aimed at creating one lakh jobs in five years, the scheme is targeted at school dropouts and under-grads from BPL and non-BPL categories. It offers aspirants tailor-made crash courses for salaried jobs in private sector within and outside J&K.
The centrally Sponsored Swarnjayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana (SGSY), otherwise restricted to the BPL population, was slightly amended to become the main resource base for the new initiative. Himayat is being implemented through PIAs who get Rs 23000 per head for identifying, training and finally placing a candidate in the market. The remuneration is shortly being reviewed.
