BY SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

Candidates recruited by the Apache footwear company at Tada after completion of training.

WITH corporate giant Reliance and steel and engineering majors such as Caparo and the RKKR group eying the district as an investment destination, the district administration, in particular the Indira Kranti Patham (IKP)-District Rural Development Agency (DRDA), is providing market-driven training to enhance the employability of socially and economically poor rural youth and people whose lands have been acquired to set up industrial units and Special Economic Zones (SEZs).

The Employment Generation and Marketing Mission (EGMM), constituted by the Rural Development Department to create employment avenues in the non-farm sector, is providing training to the rural poor as part of its mission to offer at least one job per household. As many as 34,568 unemployed youth have been identified in various mandals for training and 5,300 have been trained under the supervision of B.L. Chennakesava Rao, Project Director of the IKP-DRDA, for entry-level jobs.

For instance, 3,411 candidates were trained at 15 centres in English, basic computer operations and skills of work readiness. Of the lot, 3,137 have found jobs in business process outsourcing units, information technology-enabled services, security agencies and in the textile and construction fields. The prominent recruiters are Atlas Documentary Facilitators Company Private Limited of HDFC bank, Apache India Limited, GMR constructions, KMC constructions and Sana constructions.

In order to improve food security to families living below the poverty line, the IKP-DRDA is implementing the ASARA programme, which envisages availability of essential commodities at cheaper prices oncredit basis on the fifth day of every month. As many as 1.60 lakh families have been covered.

Santwana is a unique insurance programme devised for the poor. Under it, for the normal death of a woman member of an insured family, the relief provided is Rs.10,000, while it is Rs.30,000 for the normal death of the head of the family and for the normal death of single women, Rs.75,000 for death caused by accident and Rs.37,500 for partial disability, at an annual premium of Rs.125. The district administration is also providing financial assistance to children in the 0-12 age group for treatment of heart diseases.

K. Mrityunjaya Ram