Smile Foundation and SARD have launched a community development programme through empowering the youth in south west part of Delhi. The youth, belonging to the underprivileged section of the society, will be availed of quality vocational skill training and ensured to apply the same through proper help and guidance. Gild child will be the special focus of the programme. A Business Skill Development Centre (BSDC) will be set up based on the findings and feedback from the project.

About the Partner

Society for All Round Development (SARD), a registered NGO was founded in year 1996 by a group of like-minded individuals coming from different fields such as Public Health, Education etc. It has been working to empower deprived section of society, especially women, through promotion of education, health care, skill development and sustainable economic activities.

The organization works in field of Education, Health, livelihood and CSR across the states of Haryana, Rajasthan and Delhi.

The organization has received support and been working with a host of national and international agencies, corporate houses as well as partners such Agha Khan Foundation, USAID, Reach India, Pathfinder International, Oxfam GB, Care India, UNFPA, BILT , Sri Gopal Paper Mills, ITC Ltd, Hero Honda, Tudor India, Rajiv Gandhi Foundation, UNESCO and DSACS to name a few.

The Project

“Skill Development of adolescent, women and youth of resettlement colonies and engaging them in gainful vocations to lead better standards of life” is the name and objective of the project. The joint project will be implemented in Sitapuri in Delhi.

Sitapuri is a resettlement colony in South–West Delhi, inhabited by people who are migrants from the states of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Rajasthan. They depend mostly on daily wage for livelihood.

Majority of people are illiterate. Literacy among women is still lower and half the children in the age group 6-14 years are out of school,

The partner’s present activities at Sitapuri include a CRC (Community Research Centre) and a Learning Centre. CRC Centre is the nodal place / premises where from all major activities / training is organized. The cluster office is fully equipped with necessary furniture and fixtures including computers etc. The Vocational Training Centre (mainly based on Jute & Textile) as part of the project will be organized from this centre. At present a Learning Centre providing NFE to around 30 children (aged 6-14 years) is being implemented by the partner SARD at the premises.

The proposed area of operation includes 3 clusters of South West Delhi such as Sitapuri, Kakrola and Rajapuri. SARD has been working in these clusters through a Programme for Enriching Primary Education “PEPE” since 2004 which can make the joint project a roaring success.

Smile Foundation and SARD plans to explore possibilities of setting up a Business Skill Development Centre (BSDC) at a later stage once the project starts. The centre will help enhance family income by providing relevant and marketable skills to the adolescents in the area. This effort will complement the existing initiative which focus on ‘at risk children’ by providing alternate form of education – focusing on girl children and youth.

Main focus of the project is as follow:

• Impart Training in vocational skills to adolescents (12-18 years), with special emphasis on girl children. It will include skills building and up-gradation, facilitating and establishing business venture for individuals, group enterprises and also capacitating them for integrating into labour market.
• Sensitize adolescents on issues relating to gender, health and life skills; development and empowerment in socio-economic context; that is enabling them to act with right perspectives.
• Provide awareness on reproductive and sexual health, HIV/AIDS; and, in particular, health implications for women and economic implications for family – on account of too early, too frequent and too many pregnancies and child births.
• Providing career counseling and information about career prospects and appropriate guidance.

Project Design and Strategy:

Vocational skills training will be provided to around 150 adolescents, in three batches, during the one year. The place of training shall be three Clusters Resource Centres (CRC) located in south-west Delhi. Currently these CRCs are working with local community and being converted into Adolescent Livelihood/Business Centre. CRCs are thus envisioned as a crucial link between education and economic interventions through most appropriate life skills, vocational skills and social change initiatives.

Following trades and crafts have been identified for skills training:

• Jute handicrafts,
• Textile designing and printing
• Book Binding
• Mobile Phone Repair Centre
  (teaching basics and advanced courses for semi-qualified youth)
  
  The identified trades have more scope in terms of employment (self-employment) while these require minimum knowledge, efforts and time to master the same.

  Jan Sikshan Sansthan (JSS) (formerly known as Shramic Vidyappeth - a training wing of Ministry of Human Resource Development, Govt. of India) will provide Technical Instructors for the project. JSS will be approached to provide syllabus and accreditation to the students by conducting exams to qualify.

  25 students from each centre will be imparted with VT, each course will be for 6 months, therefore covering 150 adolescents in a year.
  The mobile phone repair service-as a trade- has been selected considering the recent telecommunication boom country has witnessed, a mobile phone fast having acquired an integral part of one’s dress kits. Service outlets for such modern gadgets are few and far between and therefore a trained workforce would have readymade clientele as there is emerging/increasing need for such services.
  Life Enrichment education (LEE) relevant to the course will be included in the curricula to develop better outlook and awareness among the beneficiaries. Emphasis is laid on practical work combined with related theoretical instruction
  

Special Focus

• Girl children will get special attention in the project
• At least 60 per cent of the students will be ensured to start their livelihood by the end of the course
• Training in entrepreneurial development along with marketing skills may be added along with the course
• Marketing linkages will be developed for sale of produced items