Unemployment in India is always a serious issue particularly in rural India as the scope is limited in rural areas. So launching of Rural Self Employment Training Institutes (RSETIs) by the Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD) of the Government of India is a praiseworthy step. MoRD was impressed by the Rural Development and Self Employment Training Institute (RUDSETI) model which was established in the year 1982 at Dharmasthala, Karnataka by Dr D Veerendra Heggade jointly with Syndicate Bank and Canara Bank. MoRD in 2009 advised all the banks to establish one RUDSETI type institute in all their Lead Districts under the banner of Rural Self Employment Training Institutes (RSETIs) (www.nacer.in/index_more.html).
It is pertinent to mention that RSETIs identify, orient, train and assist rural youth to take up self-employment as a source of livelihood. The youths in the age group of 18-45 years, irrespective of caste, creed or religion are eligible to undergo training at RSETI, which is free of cost. RSETI has been doing a commendable job in training and settlement of rural youths. The total number of training programmes organised from inception to 31 March 2020 was 1,26,556 where the number of youth trained was 35,00,770 during the same period and 24,41,083 (69.73%) youths were settled. Further, the number of functional RSETIs was 585 where altogether 29 banks weresponsored (www.nacer.in/performance_glance.html).
Each RSETI offers skill development programmes in a financial year in various avenues and in each batch 25-30 youths are selected for training. The programmes are of short duration ranging from 1 to 6 weeks. And to get a general idea few trades are mentioned below:
• Agricultural Programmes – agriculture and allied activities like dairy, poultry, apiculture, horticulture, sericulture, mushroom cultivation, floriculture, fisheries, etc
• Product Programme – dress designing for men and women, rexine articles, incense sticks manufacturing, football making, bag, bakery products, leaf cup making, recycled paper manufacturing, etc.
• Process Programmes – two wheeler repairs, radio/TV repairs, motor rewinding, electrical transformer repairs, irrigation pump-set repairs, tractor and power tiller repairs, cell phone repairs, beautician course, photography and videography, screen printing, domestic electrical appliances repair, computer hardware and DTP.
• General Programmes – skill development for women
• Other Programmes – related to other sectors like leather, construction, hospitality and any other sector depending on local requirements.
The author time to time studied many youths who were undergoing training and also collected data after training that were settled and found earning was substantial. Few names as evidence can be mentioned here: a) Adapa Kalpana (female) , Dharanikota village of Amaravathi Mandal, Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh ( year of study in 2016), b) Ashok Kumar ( Male/year of study July 2018), Hajpurwa village of Warisnagar block, Samastipur district of Bihar, c) Arati Mishra (female/ year of study July 2018) Nirpur village, Samastipur block, Samastipur district d) In 2017, the author studied some youths of Amritsar district, Punjab. The youths were Jasbir Kaur (female), Harjit Kaur (female), Mandip Kaur (female), Navneet Kaur e) In 2019 the author studied by visiting RSETI at Aurangabad district of Maharashtra. Names of some of the youths are Chhaya Bhalerao (female), Kalpana Jagannath Surase (female), Umesh Bhanudas Dhepe (male), f) In Darrang district of Assam names of some of the youths who were contacted in 2018 are Mousami Saikia Gogoi (female), Poly Seal (female), Mira Medhi, (female), Sabita Koch (female) and many others.
In addition, the author visited many RSETIs and cases collected about the youths trained and post-training settlement and earning of income. and found training and post-training settlement was praiseworthy.
It is suggested that wherever feasible RSETI may be started at the sub-division level.
Track2Training 