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the three Simliya engineers
We take great care to ensure that all our CSR programmes are need-based and that they are sustainable.
One example was the idea of starting a vocational training course that would provide gainful self-
employment to qualified unemployed youth in the Gadepan region. This is how a new CSR programme
was seeded.
We started by conducting a need assessment survey, and identified that the hot and humid climate
exacerbated by regular power cuts and fluctuations generally caused damage to electrical products
installed at homes and r farms in the region. The nearest mechanic could only be found only in Kota,
which is 40 km away. Identifying this opportunity, we initiated a vocational training course in house
wiring for the rural folks.
The stories of all those who did this course, and became gainfully employed are too many to narrate
here. But we will tell one story that of the three unemployed engineers who took advantage of this
opportunity and made a career for themselves.
The three engineers belong to a BPL family from Simliya, a small village near our plant. Though
their economic conditions were poor, all the three managed to complete their senior secondary and
polytechnic engineering course, but only to find themselves unemployed. Nothing was going their way
until they joined Chambal’s house wiring course.
Since they were very poor, even commuting to the centre and buying essential materials essential for the
course proved to be a huge challenge. But they didn’t lose heart and started taking small jobs of wiring
in the village to make some money. As they had just started learning and were unable to fix problems on
their own, they found a unique way of fixing the problem. They would take the faulty equipment to the
teacher at the vocational training centre and seek his guidance in solving the problem.
The programme came to an end after three months but it was a new beginning for the Similya engineers.
As they grew proficient in their skills, they found the confidence to take on full-fledged electrical jobs.
Today, they have managed to start a shop of their own, and each one is earning around ` 500/month,
an amount three times of their family earnings.
trained in different vocational skills at these centres.
Apart from empowering youth through vocational
training programmes, we also run four community
information training centres to impart basic digital
literacy skills.
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