The rainbow of blessings....DDUGKY

The rainbow of blessings.....DDUGKY

It was evening, dark grey clouds had lined up in the sky, the sun setting on the horizon. I was returning to board a flight from Nagpur to Mumbai after visiting a DDUGKY centre set up by Nidaan technologies.
The day had been extremely satisfying, I was smiling to myself and as I looked out of the window, I saw a rainbow smiling back at me, magnificent and glorious, full of colours and joy, just like my day.
Nidaan technologies had been selected as a project implementation agency, (PIA) under Deendayal Upadhyay Grameen Kaushalya Yojana, DDUGKY, the flagship skilling programme of the MoRD, Government of India.
Nidan, is one among the topmost accelerated skill training institutes having presence in three states of Maharashtra, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh. Founded in 2004 by a group IT professionals and Skill instructors, it has trained over 35,000 individuals in highly technical customized courses including Logistics / Transport / Warehouse / Retail / Telecom / Electronics & IT Hardware / IT / ITES.
Under DDUGKY they proposed a plan to train about 500 students. They had a ready centre, infrastructure and equipments in place along with a detailed plan for mobilisation. Taking these aspects into consideration they were allocated targets in Gadhchiroli, Gondiya, Bhandara and Chandrapur districts.
I was pleasantly surprised when I was called for the inauguration of the centre at Nagpur within a fortnight.
A huge campus and a state of art building
with eager and enthusiastic faculty and students waited to receive me. The mobilsation of students was quick and easy due to the support taken from the offices of the CEO, Zilla Parishad, Project Director, DRDA and the District Mission Units.
Against a target of 280 students, 260 students had already mobilised from Gondiya, Bhandara and Chandrapur of which 60 percent were girls.
The jam-packed hall was therefore vibrant . The Centre-In-Charge made a presentation which highlighted the various aspects of DDUGKY and also gave information about their company. Apart from introduction to the course and soft skills, a health camp for the students had been organised and medical support given to those who required it. Yoga day and a tree plantation drive, propgating the concept of "own a tree" and hand it over to the next batch received fabulous response wherein the student who planted the tree would take care of it and hand it over to the next batch to be taken care of.
Leena, a student from Chandrapur shared her experience. She had joined the course in Logistics and was extremely satisfied with the lodging and boarding facilities and the friendly atmosphere. She wanted to complete the course and reach great heights through her work. She felt that given an opportunity one can do a lot in life. So she was happy to have got this opportunity and wanted to help other children in her village by telling them how DDUGKY had transformed her life.
Vaibhav, a student from Kadegaon, Dapoli Bhandara district had appeared for 12th standard examination and was waiting for his results. He was bored in the free time. He happened to meet a friend who told him about a Rozgaar Melava. The faculty of Nidaan had gone for mobilisation and he went there and got selected. On coming to the institute, he felt isolated and lonely as if he was in a jungle. His friends were few and he was afraid that he would be ragged. Instead , he was recieved very warmly by the boys. The institute had planned many activities to ensure they do not get bored . Apart from that they learnt many useful things about body language, how to sit, how to talk, the importance of maintaining eye contact and overall behaviour and personality development.
He was very thankful to DDUGKY which was a blessing for the poor and perhaps the only course which gives a job guarantee on completion of training. It made his dream of being successful true. He had joined the Logistics course and hoped to be employed after training but his ultimate goal was to start his own business and provide employment opportunities to others. Just as he had been helped, he wanted to help poor.
Mr.Vipin of Future Supply Chain Group had also come for the inauguration. He was so motivated by the girls who had been mobilised that he offered placement to a complete batch by initiating a warehouse completely managed by the girls trained at Nidaan.
Mr.Karanjekar, proposing the vote of thanks, mentioned three principles which demonstrated the dedication of the PIA- ' interest, involvement and investment of time and money'. Before starting this centre, he had visited centres of 8 existing PIAs to understand the various aspects of actual implementation of the programme. His team was involved because the Director, Mr.Kamble had personally been camping for 42 days at the centre to ensure all aspects were taken care of. Mobilisation camps were held in the villages to ensure selection of the correct candidate. Also support of the offices of the CEO, Zilla Parishad,  PD, DRDA and the District Mission Manager were taken in all the districts. In fact.the DMMs of Gondiya, Chandrapur were present at the orientation.
The counsellors employed by the PIA  included 2 students who had been trained under DDUGKY.
Pooja Dongre, from a village in Gondiya, had completed her course in retail in 2017 and  had been employed as a counsellor. She excelled in her performance because she knew about the scheme and also doubled up as a skill icon who inspires others to join DDUGKY.
Chandraprakash another student from Gondiya had completed his training in BPO, non-voice and had also become a counsellor. All this truly bespoke of the involvement of the PIA.
Nidan- means patience and combining it with perseverance they had achieved this commendable success. Their motto of enabling a large number of youth through skilling and making them employable to earn their livelihood seemed to be coming true for the poor and needy children from the remote villages of Maharashtra.
The dark clouds had converged into soothing drops of rain and the bright rainbow of God's blessings beaming in the sky reflected my joy. After all, I was working for Umed- hope, and for New confidence and New horizons.....