Friday, December 27, 2013

Caritas India Rozgar Dhaba livelihood model: learning model for Ministry of housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation


Rozgar Dhaba ( part of LIFE programme of Caritas India in Rajasthan) is an innovative ‘sustainable livelihood’ model to mitigate migratin by addressing unemployment and underemployment situation through providing a platform of information on better employment opportunities and on government schemes. It has initiated in 8 villages of two districts –Banswara and Ajmer  of Rajasthan in 2011 and has been awarded last year ( in 2012) under Sita Ram Rao National Case Study Completion on livelihood models as one of the top 10 sustainable livelihood model  and also be selected as one of the top 50 sustainable model by Power of Ideas (IIM-Ahemdabad) now same model has been read by Ministry of Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation on one of the online platform of Caritas India and now ministry has invited Caritas India to share this model and expressed interest to work with Caritas on Rozgar Dhaba model under National Urban Livelihood Mission (NULM).

When we have started this model under LIFE project in 2011, we ( Caritas India team) felt it catchy , as it was innovative from its name to its services and was one of the interesting model to work on mitigating migration….

Caritas India livelihood team member and Assistant Director Fr. Paul had two series of meeting with the concerned ministry Joint Seceratary ( Urban Poverty alleviation) Mr. Brijesh Kumar Aggarwal. Soon caritas India would be submitting a detail paper on Rozgar Dhaba to the concened ministry to move for working on the model in urban pockets in northern India.

Here important is to note that Caritas India programmes are so impactful and are quite openly available on online platforms that people across the society learn from it and acquire knowledge from it.

LIFE programme has started as the first result based programme of Caritas India in year 2010 with two diocesan partners (SJVS-Banswara and RCDSSS-Ajmer) and has completed in Jan 2013 with 91% of set target result. Even after completion of LIFE project still Rozgar Dhaba models are functioning in villages. In Ajmer in naulkha village ( LIFE project village), Rozgar Dhaba Model been officially linked with Panchyat and functions as Panchyat Resource Center there.

 

It is matter of proud for us that ministries and various other development organizations are learning from this model and happy that Caritas India sharpen its team members to come out with innovation to zero down livelihood concerns of ‘Bottom of Pyramids’


47% of Graduates of 2013 Unemployable for Any Job: Study

 It seems formal education in India is not imparting enough skills to students as nearly half of the graduates of this year were found unemployable for any job, according to a study.
The study identified the key employability trends of 2013 and the most striking one was that a significant proportion of graduates of 2013, nearly 47 per cent, were found unemployable in any sector, given their English language and cognitive skills, said Aspiring Minds, a leading employability solutions company.
Meanwhile according to a survey 8.5 lakh new jobs are expected across various sectors, including FMCG and healthcare.
Of all the respondents in the survey, only 2.59 per cent of them was found employable in functional roles such as accounting, while 15.88 per cent was suitable for employment in sales related roles and 21.37 per cent for roles in the business process outsourcing sector, a report by Aspiring Minds said.
It said more females are pursuing three-year degree courses and when it comes to employability they are similar or higher suited than males.
There are 109 males to every 100 females in three-year degree programmes, it said.
Lack of English knowledge, poor skills in computer and concepts learning were major deterrents to employability.
Poor knowledge of English and inadequate computer skills dampen employability prospects in smaller towns significantly, the report said, adding that for students residing or studying in smaller towns and cities (tier 2 or tier 3), the maximum gap is observed in English and computer skills.
Moreover, not more than 25 per cent of the graduating students could apply concepts to solve a real-world problem in the domain of finance and accounting, while, on average, 50 per cent graduates are able to answer definition-based/ theoretical questions based on the same concept.
The report noted that around 41 per cent of graduates employable in accounting roles hail from colleges beyond the top 30 per cent colleges, whereas for the IT services sector this percentage is 36 per cent.


Source:  www,newsindianexpress.com