Digital Livelihoods for 1,000,000 At-risk Youth

Neeharika Tummala is an in-the-field traveler for GlobalGiving for the India and Bangladesh region.

India is one of the largest producers of engineers in the world. But many of them don’t use those degrees and instead have to retrain to find industry relevant jobs. So you can imagine that the need for industry relevant job training is even more relevant at the grass-roots, where thousands of youth are searching for employment. Anudip is working to bridge that gap by bringing in training and relevant courses to these small towns. I had the opportunity to travel to a small town a few hours away from bustling Kolkatta. Here I found eager students who were working on their English, learning computers and interacting with software developed in-house with video based learning. The batch that I met were newbies so it was interesting to hear their thoughts on the future and where they think they will go after these courses. One thing is for sure – it looked like a hardworking group of students and I loved seeing the eagerness on their faces.

The trip didn’t end there through. An Anudip staff member and I travelled another few hours to get to a much smaller town that is considered the gateway of the Sundarban, a famous tiger sanctuary. There I met a small business owner, who owes his start to the Anudip Foundation and their grant. It’s a modest internet, phone and copy store, but it does good business as it’s the only one of its kind in that town. I had a great time there as we toured around the village, went to the lake on a bullock cart, and met his brother. We talked about his business, entrepreneurship, new technology and continuous learning, which is the spirit of Anudip. I loved seeing this success story in person and I’m so happy that I could bring his story to you!