Ahmedabad, Gujarat based NGO Saath (Initiatives for Equity in Development) is profiled in this NGO in-depth post. This article is taken from the latest edition of Outlook Business that covers development and social entrepreneurship. The article is written by Rajiv Bhuva.
Saath’s myriad initiatives have helped Gujarat’s slum dwellers shake off poverty.
by Rajiv Bhuva
Healthcare, slum education, micro-finance, youth and women’s employment… Ahmedabad-based Saath has myriad programmes to improve the lot of the urban poor. In some way, its initiatives can be likened to a complex web that touches every corner of their lives. “This web is not to trap, but a mechanism to uplift the urban poor,” says Chinmayi Desai, Director, Urban Programmes, Saath.
Healthcare, slum education, micro-finance, youth and women’s employment… Ahmedabad-based Saath has myriad programmes to improve the lot of the urban poor. In some way, its initiatives can be likened to a complex web that touches every corner of their lives. “This web is not to trap, but a mechanism to uplift the urban poor,” says Chinmayi Desai, Director, Urban Programmes, Saath.
Saath’s livelihood programme for the youth, has been running for the last three years across Gujarat and Rajasthan. “Our focus is to make youth employable,” says Bhuneshwar Choudhary, Project Director, Umeed–Udaan. Of the 15,000 students trained across Gujarat under the Umeed-Udaan programme, 12,000 have already been placed in suitable jobs.
The programme targets slum dwellers and school/college dropouts for enrolment. Those who enroll go through a screening exercise that assesses their existing skills and training needs. The training curriculum, spread over three months, includes basic computer skills, spoken English, customer relations, sales, logistics, etc. “Working with urban poor is not an easy task. The youth in particular suffer from a sense of despair, says Rajendra Joshi, Managing Trustee, Saath. “The challenge is to convince them that they can have a career if they work hard for it.”
The results have been very promising. Of the 15,000 students trained across Gujarat, over 12,000 have already been placed in suitable jobs. Monthly salaries range from Rs. 3,000–10,000.
Joshi says Saath aims to train 20,000 youth this year and take that number to 100,000 over the next three years. “The challenge of such youth employment programmes is keeping the retention rate high,” he explains.
In 2008, Umeed Disability was launched to include disabled youth in the programme. Over the course of the year, 143 students enrolled, of which, 31 were successfully placed. Today, the disabled comprise close to 5% of all Umeed trainees. Joshi wants to raise that to 10%. “There are two sets of challenges there,” he explains. “The first challenge is to motivate the disabled person to come and take the training. The second is to convince employers to take on disabled candidates.”
The NGO’s other initiatives include educating slum children and providing healthcare. As of March this year, its microfinance initiative had over 10,000 members. Slowly but surely, all these programmes are helping the urban poor live better lives.
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