150 youths from slums enrol in skill development courses

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Bhubaneswar: About 150 boys and girls from slums and informal settlements in the Bhubaneswar Town Centre District (BTCD) have enrolled themselves for various skill development training programmes of both the state and Central Government
institutions.
While 24 youths from the slums of BTCD have enrolled at Government ITIs for skill development programmes such as food processing, electronics (AC/refrigerator) repairing, basic computer training etc., 120 have opted for various programmes of National Skill Development Corporation. Their course preferences include general duty assistant, assistant beautician, sewing machine operator, self-employment tailoring training, etc.
This has become possible due to sustained efforts of Bhubaneswar Smart City Limited (BSCL) and Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) in collaboration with United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) as part of the Socially Smart Bhubaneswar Initiative.
Several rounds of interactions, capacity building sessions and exposure visits to various skill development institutions have helped in generating interest among the young girls and boys to opt for various skilling programmes of their choice.
Also, a line listing of youths done in the first year of the intervention has helped the authorities to identify the educational competencies of youth and their key interest areas.
This was followed by meetings, exposure visits and interactions organised for the youths of slums with various agencies such as ITI, UMBC managed by Centurion University, UBER Office, Government Driving Training School among others.
Most of the linkages with skill development programmes have been done in 12 slums of Kedarpalli, Railway Colony Basti, Telugu Basti, Shantipalli, Ashoknagar Phalika Basti, Janata Lodge Basti, Shantinagar, Kanjiahuda, Press Colony and Tiranga Basti in
BTCD area.
The implementing partner of Socially Smart Bhubaneswar programme Humara Bachpan Trust has played a key role in facilitating the capacity building programmes for the youth in these slums. Peer leaders, volunteers of the implementing partner also work at the slum level to ensure least drop out from amongst the enrolled candidates.
It may be noted that the Socially Smart Initiative focusses on giving primacy to the needs of young people while promoting safety and security of girls and women, especially in urban slums through safety audits, community engagement as well as capacity building programmes.
As part of this programme, nearly 300 girls from the slums of BTCD have been given self-defence training by BSCL in collaboration with city-based Utkal Karate School. Earlier, the interventions under Socially Smart Bhubaneswar Initiative had helped 25 youths, mostly girls from BTCD, in developing their various skills.