India is the largest country with a population of 1.3 billion people. It has about 6,00,000 villages with 70 percent of its population living in rural areas. Most of the youth are leaving villages in search of livelihood and eventually live in urban slums and live a pathetic existence to earn and feed their families back home. There are thousands and thousands of ghost villages in our mountainous regions, where the youth have left their main occupation of agriculture and left for urban areas in search of jobs. The DAD Foundation recognizes this monumental problem and is working to mitigate this huge task through various interventions such as supporting vocational training programs, good agricultural practices, encouraging traditional arts, Naturopathy courses, animal husbandry practices, establishing small enterprises, etc.
The DAD Foundation-supported organizations for vocational training of youth in North-India for their livelihood opportunities. Similarly, in the North – Yesterday’s projects for employment generation of youth were also approved. In this endeavor, the screening/selection of candidates was given top priority to arrive at the most qualified candidates. The training course was designed after assessing the needs of the industry and the training was provided in a real industry setting with a combination of classroom sessions, practicals, and placements. The training course was guided with the guidelines of National Skill Development, DAD of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, which are broad guidelines for skill development in India. The trades offered were mainly in hospitality, beautician, tailoring, and industrial mechanic. To ensure smooth absorption of candidates, a network with future employers was also established. Employers were provided with a summary of training capsules and a profile of candidates for higher placement rates. For the candidates who were successful in getting employment in states in different geographical areas, financial assistance was also provided for a smooth transition. Apart from employment, the youth were also encouraged to set up their own enterprises, for which they were linked with banks for financial assistance and the market to take advantage of opportunities.
Skill-building projects were also supported through Dasha Arogya Dham in Jaipur, where more attention was paid to women who did not have the capacity but were never exploited due to lack of risk and opportunities. Through The DAD Foundation funding, DAD Foundation was also engaged in the implementation of the project in Uttarakhand.
The DAD Foundation has supported projects across India to enhance agro-based interventions through agro-based agro packages. These projects were awarded to the National Foundation of India, these projects included states like Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra. The components of the projects focused on improved farming practices for greater productivity. For cereal, vegetable and other crops – farmers trained on seed selection, seed treatment, nursery making, transplantation of crops, vacancy, weed management, use of bio-fertilizers, vermicompost, harvesting, and overall crop management related practices were done. Demonstration plots were also used to promote easy understanding of farmers on the proposed change in practices. Each farmer was guided with the crop plan to obtain maximum production from the available land round in the year. Farmer groups were formed to optimize opportunities in the value chain to obtain the best prices for yield. Market linkages were established and the system was established so that the farmers in the group could get a favorable deal in negotiation. The technology was also used to ensure farmers on the market move.
To increase household-level income, activities around poultry, piggery, dairy were also started for the beneficial engagement of women. Initial assistance to eligible families was given under the project and technical inputs around the enterprise were also provided by experts who extended handholding support. For the dairy project, funding was given to establish cattle, fodder, chilling plants, collection centers, and even formalize the distribution system.
Engagement with government schemes has been one of the strategies that the DAD Foundation is promoting with its partners. The partners took advantage of programs such as skill development and entrepreneurship in developing training modules and evaluation of candidates. DAD certified training provided more opportunities and recognition of courses conducted by the candidates. For agricultural projects, support was sought from the respective states to obtain technical information from -DAD (Center for Agricultural Sciences) and other agricultural institutes. The project also provided provisions for agricultural equipment such as water pumps/motors for greater access and livelihood of the project.
