Book keepers, accountants coming from rural BPL families

With hiring back, Avinash HP, like other youngsters, managed to bag a job some three-four months ago.

His new status as an accountant for INet Technologies in Chikmagalur district in Karnataka, which pays about `7,000 per month, immediately made him the talk of his village, where several literate people are without jobs.

“Villagers are seeking my help to find jobs,” says the 22-year-old, who now supplements his family income of Rs11,000 per year earned by his parents after toiling for hours in farms.

Avinash says in his village Helikere in Teerthalli taluka of Shimoga, over 60-70 literate people are unemployed due of scarcity of jobs.

Like Avinash, 19-year-old Jyothy P is also getting queries from her neighbours and acquaintances about employment prospects, ever since she landed up with a job four months ago with Surabhi Computers, in Koppa, a panchayat town in Karnataka, earning Rs5,000 per month.

Over 30-40 people in her village Melpal in Narsimharajapura taluka in Chikmaglur district are jobless, and are relying heavily on people like her to guide them in their job searches, says Jyothy.

“This job has eased some of mine and my mother’s worries,” says Jyothy, revealing that she is using her salary to repay loans her family had taken, as well as help her mother make ends meet.

Avinash and Jyothy say they got jobs after undergoing a three-month course for youngsters who have studied up to class 12, hailing from families having annual incomes of below Rs40,000.

“I could not study beyond II PUC (class 12), as I don’t have a father, and my mother’s income of Rs3,000 per month as a labourer is barely enough to run the house,” says Jyothy, adding that luckily she got to know through her friends about a free course being conducted in Koppa for people like her.

“I became a lot more confident as I got to learn basic communication in English, basics of accountancy, computers,” she says.

Like Jyothy and Avinash, about 50,000 youngsters from rural Karnataka, Maharashtra, Haryana, Uttaranchal, Punjab, Andhra Pradesh and other states have been trained and placed with firms as book keepers, cashiers, junior accountants, financial data entry operators etc, as part of a scheme by the Union Ministry of Rural Development and Bangalore-based software product firm Tally Solutions.

“The course is absolutely free. The only criterion being students should be qualified at least up to class 12, and belong to rural below-poverty-line families,” says H Prakash, joint director, ministry of rural development, Karnataka government.

Aimed at developing skills of underprivileged youngsters to make them employable, the scheme, started in Uttaranchal in 2006 with 1,000 students, is planning to tap approximately 200,000 students every year, for the next two to three years.

Funding for the scheme comes for the central government, while the implementation is being done by Tally.

Avinash Gupta, CEO of the education division of Tally, says about 27,000 students are undergoing training across different states.    

Although rural areas are in the process of development, jobs are available in greater numbers mostly in metros, thus requiring re-location by job seekers.

“But being unexposed to city life, these students are often hesitant to move to cities, as they lack confidence to deal with urban life, and have problems communicating,” says Madhusudan, an instructor for the course in Koppa.

Madhusudan says through this course, along with building their expertise in domains like computers and accounting, students are helped to enhance their communication skills and their overall personality.

According to Gupta, the districts and towns from where students are taken are chosen keeping in mind the demographics. “Locations having highest density of target students or demand are chosen.”

Awareness about the scheme is generate through job melas held annually by the labour department in various districts, as well as releases issued by the zilla panchayats, says Prakash. “Brochures are distributed among gram panchayats and taluka panchayats.”