Educating the blind by being their vision!
Rendering Seva is about selflessness and love for the Supreme. The Supreme can be perceived in a form or formless, with attributes or without attributes.
Trainers
Anjali Pillay, Bhilai,
Chhattisgarh
“I believe in self-empowerment for women
so that they can stand on their own in society.
Being a Sai devotee, I work towards creating
this awareness among the people. I
think love with selfless service is modern-day
spirituality,” says Anjali Pillay, who has been
associated with Sri Sathya Sai Vocational
Training Programme from 2017. She is a
Senior Human Resource Manager at Bhilai
Steel Plant, Steel Authority of India Limited
(SAIL). She has experience in providing training
in Tailoring, Sweet box making, Candle
Making (floating candle), Papad and Pickle Making.In 2015, she got posted in the CSR department of SAIL and got the chance to do service
through her occupation. Bhilai Steel Plant adopted 21 villages and she was part of the team
which made “self-help groups” of 15-20 number of women who had gone through the training
of sweet box making, candle making, old clothes mattress, tailoring, pickle-papad making,
and marketing. In the past three years she has trained about 700 women.
S. Nagabhushan Rao, Srikakulam, Andhra Pradesh
S. Nagabhushan Roo, an ITI and CTI graduate, has been associated with SSSSO since 1972. He
was the head of the institution of private training centers from 1980s. Apart from the technical
know-how, he knows the nitty-gritty of administration of the training institute. “When I have
passion to serve and share my knowledge, I don’t see any trouble,” he says.Nagabhushan travels every day
to SSSRVTC Srikakulam, for which
he is the director. He has few faculty
members and a caretaker to
support him. When asked about
the difference between other
RVTCs and SSSRVTCs, he says “We
don’t focus on providing only
skills. We aim to make them better
citizens. The students who join,
participate in morning prayer
activities, Bhajans, and Human
Value classes, which develops
their personality. I see a silent
transformation taking place
along with acquisition of skills”.
Scaling up
Vocational training programmes are fulfilling an important need for skills among youth in rural
areas and for the unemployed and under-employed youth in urban areas. Scaling up such
programmes will require studying the outcomes from the current initiatives, replicating the
best performing models and, increasing the number of centres and skill offerings that can
serve the youth and help them build long-sustaining careers.
As part of the Vocational Training Mission, SSSSO aims at increasing the number of
trained youth to 1,00,000 over the next five years and also improve on their placement
numbers and monthly wages earned. Potential earnings per year by the 100,000 trained
and employed youth could add ₹1,000 crores (₹ tO billion) per year to the economy if all are
employed or self-employed.With greater efforts to trace trainee graduates and their employment status, SSSSO
will be able to report more accurately on the actual earning history of the trainees.
This is a challenge flagged by researchers when the outcomes of vocational training
programs in India are discussed. Going forward, SSSSO plans to implement systems
that will improve the tracking of graduated trainees so that their employability is
determined more accurately and widely.
All India Meeting of Vocational Training Coordinators at Prasanthi Nilayam
One of the immediate goals is to build a Management Information System (MIS) that will help
manage the vast amount of data generated across India along scores of indicators that need
to be tracked in order to study its vocational training programmes. Such an MIS will help
streamline data collection and management and, significantly improve the assessment of
outcomes and impact of the vocational training programmes.Towards the above goals, collaborations with different organizations, support of philanthropists,
CSR support from corporates, and implementation partnerships with organizations
already established in this domain of skilling will be critical. By elaborating on SSSSO’s vocational
training programmes and their experience with various models, the Organisation hopes to
establish the case for a multi-pronged approach to vocational training and skill development
in this decade.
Trainees
T. Latha, Hindupur,
Andhra Pradesh
“We are a family of four members, husband,
myself and two children. My husband is working
as a TV Dish connecting person. Prior to Mag gam
and Jardosi training we were facing hardships for
family maintenance and were unable to provide
quality education for our children.With the help of BIRED in association with Sri
Sathya Sai Seva Organisation, Hindupur, we got
trained in Maggam and Jardosi works for 45 days. This training helped us a lot and I am able to earn around ₹7,000-8,000 per month. With this I
was able to manage my family expenditure and now we are able to give quality education
to our children by joining them in good schools. With this we were respected among our relatives
and able to lead dignified lives in society. Now I am also training my neighbours on this
Maggam and Jardosi work and helping them. I extend my heartfelt gratitude to BIRED and
Sri Sathya Sai Seva Organisations, Hindupur, Andhra Pradesh. I am very happy to say that my
children are now attending Bal Vikas classes too.”
Vimalkumar,
Kanchipuram, Tamil Nadu
Vimalkumar, a youth from Seliyur in Kanchipuram District,
Tamil Nadu, studied Class XI and could not continue his education
due to family circumstances. He had to take up a job
to help his father (who is a driver) and was searching for one.
Fortunately, he came across a SSSSO Member who heard his
story, suggested that he join SSS RVTC at Nanmangalam and
get trained in Plumbing, Electrical and Two-wheeler Servicing.
The SSSSO Member also said that the course was being
offered free and was an integrated one. He could choose
the work in any of the trades, the spectrum of opportunities
was wide.
The member also brought Vimalkumar to the RVTC Nanmangalam. The boy was intelligent
and diligent. He learnt the skills well. He showed extra interest in Two Wheeler servicing and
worked on Sundays too. After completion of training, he was offered employment in a
Two-wheeler Service station with a salary of ₹
6,000 and, within a year, seeing his hard work and
skill it was increased to ₹
12,000 per month. He earned a good name too, and helped new
students of RVTC in the practical techniques of servicing. He expressed his wish to start his own
service centre within a year or two.
Binotiben Patel,
Navsari, Gujarat
In August 2019, a young lady
named Binotiben Patel took
training for valuation of fruits
and vegetables under the
SSSRVTC Gandeva, Navsari
District in Gujarat. After the
training, she started her own
business in 2019. She started
preparing pulp of various fruits
and juices of amla, pineapple,
mango, guava, apple,
etc. “I have learned everything
from RVTC. They helped me set up everything. I have this business which helps me to be
independent and earn my livelihood,” she says with immense satisfaction.
Select Trainee and Trainer Profiles
Trainers
Trainees
VOCATIONAL TRAINING CENTRESVOCATIONAL TRAINING MISSION
Cost Benefit
For an investment of ₹4.54 Crores, the Sri Sathya Sai Vocational Training Centres have been
able to train 30,000+ youth who, based on the average income data generated in this
study, now have the potential to generate ₹286 crores per year. This is an impressive
achievement on multiple counts:
- The financial inputs to achieve such a figure are reasonably modest due to the
organisation’s emphasis on volunteering by highly accomplished and skilled personnel. - Sa mitis absorb a chunk of other costs like rent and other expenses.
- The student does not pay anything to be trained and therefore has zero monetary
constraints to access the training. - The cost per trainee is extremely modest when compared to other national
programmes. - The youth being benefited are from both urban and rural areas (where, especially,
earning a steady income outside of agriculture is a difficult task); - The intangible gains for the trainees are substantial: Samiti members take personal
interest in mentoring the trainees, spending time with the youth and sharing their
knowledge. - Finally, and more importantly, the trainees are able to eam an income and support their
families, which can be a game changer for them and their families, allowing them to
stay in their homes if they wish to, instead of migrating to cities in search of jobs.
The benefits of the Sri Sathya Sai Vocational Training Programmes therefore are
economic and social, psychological and spiritual. Profiles of a few trainee
graduates give us a glimpse of such benefits.
VOCATIONAL TRAINING CENTRESVOCATIONAL TRAINING MISSION
Cost of Training
The various district level SSSSO units incurred an expenditure of ₹4.54 crores while training
30,187 candidates between 2014 and 2019.
Of the ₹4.54 crores expenditure, 58% was spent towards Tailoring programmes (₹2.63 crores}
followed by 26% for Computer Courses ( 1 .18 crores), and 15% for Plumbing, Electrical and
Mechanical category (68lakhs}. Some Centres offer multiple skills, and hence the expenditure
cuts across skill categories where multiple skills are offered.The expenditure breakup is in line with the trainee numbers by category: 64% of the trainees
are in the Tailoring domain, 21% in Computer Courses and, 5% in Plumbing, Electrical and
Mechanical. The other skills being offered such as Spoken English, Food Processing or
Agri-based Products are low-resource requirement categories (e.g. for machinery, training
space, maintenance costs and raw materials} and therefore, even though 11% of the
trainees have undergone training, the expenditure is quite low ( 1 %} .SSSSO Samitis consist of a large pool of committed and qualified volunteers (Seva Dais) who
undertake all organisational activities as an opportunity for selfless service. Thus, 71% of the
trainers across programmes are volunteers who accept no remuneration. This is reflected in
the trainer salary costs: only 14% of the costs over the last five years are salary costs for
trainers hired for the specific skill type. Volunteers from the Samitis assist the trainers where
required.Operational expenses like rent,
electricity and maintenance form
the bulk of the expenditure (40%).
Raw materials for the training are
a fifth of the expenditure. Based
on the expenditure reported, the
per-trainee cost is extremely
modest.
Volunteer and Paid Trainers fry Skill Type
VOCATIONAL TRAINING CENTRESVOCATIONAL TRAINING MISSION
Potential and Actual Earnings of Trainees
Based on employability figures of trainees
from 37% of Centres, the earning numbers
for 30,000+ trainees of the Sathya Sai
Vocational Training Centres have been
calculated. The potential earnings of all
trainees are calculated based on the
average monthly salaries I wages reported
for their categories. Next, the employability
percent (trainees employed or
self-employed] reported by 37% of the
Centres is used to calculate potential
earnings only for that percent deemed
employed or self-employed out of the
total sample. These calculations give a fair
idea of the potential and actual earnings
of the trainees.
To summarize the learnings from the
above figures:
- If all the trainees were employed I
self-employed, they would earn ~24
crores per month I ~286 crores per year.
These are potential earnings of the
trainees. - Based on the reported employability
percentages for each skill type, actual
average trainee earnings amount to ~8
crores per month I ~96 crores per year.
As discussed earlier, since employability numbers are not known for all centres/trainees,
~96 crores per year is a conservative estimate, and earnings per year range from ₹96
crores to ₹286 crores at highest rate of employment. Since government training programmes
also demonstrate employability rates of 30-40% or lower in some cases, this is a
reasonable calculation of potential and actual earnings of the graduate trainees.
VOCATIONAL TRAINING CENTRESVOCATIONAL TRAINING MISSION
Comparison to Average National Income
The average monthly income of ₹8, 117 from the Sri Sathya Sai Vocational Training Programmes is significant when compared to the national income figures. In 2019, Government
of India’s Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation had estimated per capita
annual rural income in India to be ₹40.925 (₹3,410 per month) and ₹98,435 in urban areas
{₹8.202 per month). According to the All India Rural Financial Inclusion Survey conducted by
NABARD (National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development} in 2016-17, the average
household income per month in rural areas was only ₹8.059, and the average consumption
per month is ₹6,646, leaving a surplus per month of only ₹1 ,413. This surplus often goes
towards debt and loan payments leaving truly little buffer for growth, emergencies and
other expenses towards health and education.
Compared to the national income data therefore, the value added to the lives of the
individual youth trainees of the Sri Sathya Sai Vocational Training Programmes and their
households is not only substantial but life changing.