Proceedings of the3rd Annual Conference of
Skills Training Advancement in Rural Societies (STARs FORUM)
3rd,
4th December2012,“LAKAKI” hall, MCCIA, Pune.
STARs
Conference convened by STARs Forum and hosted by Sevavardhini, was held at
Pune, on 3rd& 4th December 2012. The venue of the
conference was at the “LAKAKI” hall of the Mahratta Chambers of Commerce
Industries& Agriculture, Pune.
Shri Pramod Kulkarni,
Chief Executive Officer of Sevavardhini, welcomed all the guests and the
participants.
The
conference was inaugurated by D. Kshama Metre and Dr. Sudhir Prabhu
by lighting the traditional lamp (Deep).
In his introductory speech Dr.Sudhir Prabhu explained
the aims of the Forum. He stated “The aim of the conference is to provide a
common platform for the likeminded institutions and individuals engaged in
skills training, and share their experiences in understanding the needs, the
new techniquesin teaching skills, the problems and constraints therein and
strive to cooperate and find effective solutions. Deep faith and dedicated work
is needed for taking this task ahead”.
He expressed
his happiness over the presence of new institutions and individual participants
attending the conference. He introduced the steering committee of STARS forum
to the audience which was then followed by self introduction by all
participants.
Dr.Yogesh Kulkarni, STARs
Forum Coordinator took a review of the progress of the forum.
·
Presently 26 institutions are members of
the forum. The forum will be a common platform for various government and
nongovernmental voluntary organizations, industries as well as private
entrepreneurs. The forum will address ways and means for skill training to
rural population, accreditation, economic problems and societal problems and
decide the general direction of the skills training in rural /industrial
sector. The Forum envisages expanding its work to state and further to the
nationwide level.
·
The present goals before the forum are:
encouraging youth, vocational training, advocacy and providing skill teaching
facilities.
Action plan:
§ Awareness
creation,
§ Publishing,
§ Resource
generation,
§ Creation
of dignity for manual labor,
§ Opportunities
creation
§ Partnership
with government /NGO/industry.
§ Experts’
visits.
§ Initiative
to create workable economic model.
The first plenary session started with the speech of
Dr. Narendra Sakhalkar on the subject:“Current
economic scenario and possible livelihood options in rural areas.”
·
He said that the world has changed a lot
after the fall of Communist Russia. All the governments in the world are taking
role in shaping their national economies. It has become important to study the
societal needs in the economy of a nation. With the evaporation of communist
Russia, the water tight compartmentalization between communist and capitalist
economies has vanished. Now there has to be a common platform and sharing of
ideas for the eradication of poverty.
·
He stressed that all countries including
USA, have survived poverty and adversities, now surviving and sustaining the
prosperity will be the challenge.
·
Market is an instrument and it cannot
challenge the MAN. The government should rule the banks and make them
responsible for their business.
·
He also narrated the afforestation
efforts done by his voluntary organization in Sindhudurg district. Their
experience shows that flora of foreign origin does not environmentally suits in
our indigenous conditions.
The
post lunch session was devoted to the theme viz. “Livelihood
opportunities in Modern Agricultural practices”.The
session was chaired by Dr. Kshma Metre.
·
The first speaker Dr. K.Pillai of
Vivekanand Kendra, Kanyakumari, presented his new research work on Azolla, a
very fast growing, floating fern having high Protein (Nitrogen) contents.
·
This vegetation can be incorporated in
the animal and poultry feed to augment their production.
·
This very simple and village based
technology has been beneficially been replicated in many states of India and
has been recognized by the various state governments and the universities.
·
It has been proved to be tool of
livelihood for rural families due to its low cost high benefit technology.
Mrs. Jyoti Dashrathi, Aurangabad
district of Maharashtra, narrated her experiences of the plight of rural farmer
in the absence of modern know-how, technology, resources and the market
facilities and further stressed that if skills and resources are provided, the
migration of rural youth to the urban areas can be checked with assured
respectable income in their homestead.
·
She specially stressed that one has to
have love and intimacy with one’s land and intuition for doing agriculture to
be a lifelong successful farmer.
·
According to her, awareness, motivation,
skills training, infrastructure & market facility availability are the main
challenges before the rural farmer.
·
According to her observations, lack of
means of livelihood, modern facilities, amenities and entertainment in villages
is one of the basic reasons for the migration of rural youth towards the towns
and cities.
The
next presentation of the session was by Shri Dnyaneshwar Bodke and his
colleague from Pune.
·
His voluntary organization the Abhinav
Farmers’Club has a membership of more than 50,000 farmers, and is run
commercially.
·
The member farmers deal in various farm
activities like agriculture, floriculture, dairy & poultry farming, SHG and
other allied jobs. Job opportunities are also offered in packaging, transport
and marketing of farm products.
·
They have perfected the modern
techniques in post harvest processing and marketing.
·
This has resulted in respectable earning
for farmers doing organic farming.
·
Teaching of modern agriculture skills is
an important aspect of the club.
·
Shri Bodake emphasized that Indian
farmer should and is capable of meeting the global challenges. In his confident
and assertive talk Dnyaneshwarji said, their main task is to create awareness
among farmers about the needs. Up to date knowledge of backward and forward
linkages, planning, market study and analysis, financial operation with banks
etc. are the basic skills necessary to be successful in agriculture.
Concluding address was delivered by Dr. Kshmadidi
Metre emphasizing on needs identification of skill training in Agriculture
and networking with likeminded organisations.
After the tea break, the first talk was
delivered by Shri Sunil Kulkarni. His company is developing machinery
and equipment for post harvest processing of vegetables, fruits, milk, etc.
·
The main processes include dehydration
and extraction of flavors and fragrances of food crops /fruits, like turmeric, ginger,
custard apple, bibba (marking nut) etc.
·
He has also developed a device for
production of fodder crops at low cost.
·
A film on how the rural youth can
educate and sustain himself /herself by availing of “Learn while earning”
program of Yashasvini Institute of Technology, was shown.
The
next session viz. “Livelihood challenges
& SHG movement” was chaired by Dr. Sudhatai Kothari.
·
Dr. T. K. Sini, Branch
Manager- SHG branch of Maharashtra Bank,took a review of the helpless
conditions of the poor, slum area and rural women folk twenty years back and
how the Self Help Group movement started by Dr. Mohammad Yunus in BanglaDesh
has caught roots in Indian rural societies. Today this movement has given
respectable social and financial status to women folk and kindled confidence
and entrepreneurship in them.
·
She also narrated the training and
credit facilities provided by the bank and how the NGOs can come forward to
invigorate efforts to diversify the entrepreneurship models with skills
training and forward linkage for sustainability.
·
Major hurdles before these groups are
literacy, training in account keeping, financial management, need identification,
project formulation and further processing and marketing of the products.
·
It is these areas where voluntary
organizations can help them. She also made a mention of political pressurizing
of some of these groups which need to be taken care of.
·
She also took note of some of the
constraints of SHG groups like, limited financial strength, uneven
distribution, dishonesty, internal disputes, inadequate knowledge, political
pressure, lack of market knowledge etc.
Shri
Ram Subramaniam of National Bank for Agriculture
&Rural Development (NABARD) expressed his views on the SHG movement and its
further development.
·
He also reiterated the need for training
of the SHG group members in various banking and technical skills and strengthen
the mature SHG groups by repeated financing to their needs. Sustainability of
the SHG groups and their joining together to form federation and create more
powerful and enterprising group is desired.
·
He informed the audience about the SHG
-2 scheme that will be introduced shortly, which will further strengthen the
groups by multiple refinancing.
Dr. Kothari,
in her chairperson’s address stressed the need for support service for
sustainability of the SHGs, clustering of the SHG groups and said that training
in various aspects of financial, technical and managerial skills as well value
addition and successful marketing of their products is very essential for the
success of the group’s survival and progress.
·
She, referring to CMRC (Community
Managed Resource Centre), stressed upon supporting SHG members by helping them
in “Family & Personal level planning of Livelihood” and use of MNREGA &
Watershed for the same.
The
Second Day
of the conference, 4thDecember, was given for discussions on “Technology Interventions for Livelihood generation”.
The session was chaired by Dr.
A.B.Pande, Vice-President of BAIF Development Research Foundation.
Shri Santosh Gondhalekar,
in his presentation on Employment opportunities in Bio-energy sector took a
quick review of the present day situation and availability of solid, liquid and
gaseous fuel and its increasing shortages.
·
The
ever increasing demand for energy for industry and domestic purpose has to be
made good by diverting to biomass.
·
This source has tremendous but until now
untapped potential. The biomass can be from grass to well grown trees or their
waste material.
·
He gave an example of the energy which
can be produced from Napier (Gajraj) grass. Likewise, methane from animal
droppings and waste food can also be converted to energy by use of suitable
technology.
·
Methane from gas can be purified in
liquid form and can be used for industrial or domestic use and can also be used
for electric power generation.
·
The criteria for sustainable energy from
biomass are: technical feasibility, economic and social acceptability and
sustainability.
·
The energy from biomass is more “clean” than
coal, oil and liquefied natural gas. Thus biomass energy can be safer for
environment and getting carbon credit too.
·
Pelleting of dry biomass and gasifying
for energy production is also possible.
Shri
T.N. (Anna)Limaye, a teacher by profession and keenly
interested in rural development, put his ideas before the audience. He gave
special emphasis on innovative technology use in rural area. Vocations
suggested by him for rural youth, need small capital, need simple skills, are
sustainable financially. These vocations include, simple food processing,
making of alcohol, wine, vinegar etc.
·
In animal industry, poultry, duck
keeping, turkey rearing are some simple vocations that can be done by rural men
and women.
·
Honey bee keeping (Apiculture) is
another business that can be done with little training and small capital. This
has multiple uses like increase in crop production, income from honey and
bee-wax selling.
·
In conclusion he expressed his doubt
that: 1) whether rural folk are really in need of any vocation or business and
2) have the voluntary organizations gone so self-satisfied and lethargic that
they have forgotten motivating the rural people?
Shri Milind Wakode,
Director, Khadi & Village Industries Commission (KVIC) showed a documentary
film on training in honey collection and bee keeping to tribal in Melghat area
Amravati district of Maharashtra.
·
This vocation has given not only a
sustainable means of livelihood to tribal, but also checked their migration to
towns and cities.
·
Very interesting information on
community life of bees and medicinal values of bee-venom was given by him.
Dr.A.B.Pande,
in his speech gave a message of “Think globally and act locally.”
·
Choosing an appropriate technology, testing,
modifying to our local needs and then giving it to people are the workable
strategy, he said.
·
Building of the confidence in people,
training them, providing forward and backward linkages gives success. This can
then be replicated at other places.
·
He also mentioned the organic
agriculture and milk production with attention on health of the soil by
enriching it with organic matter.
The
next session was on “Vocational& Skill
Training – Current scenario, Issues and areas of mutual cooperation”.
Shri Vivek Sinare,
Chief Manager, MITCON delivered speech on his experiences about skills
training.
·
Need assessment of the rural youth and
industry is the first requirement, followed by the identification of
opportunities for training and post training support in the form of job and
further technical support.
·
Presently there is shortage of “skilled”
man power in all sorts of industry. The skilled man power, though a little
costlier, proves to be economic and cost saving in long run.
·
Manufacturers of machinery and equipment
as well as service sector are in need of skilled men and women. The skills
include both technical as well as soft skills, and value addition.
·
Follow up of training and trainees are
essential to update their skill, knowledge, problems and to find out solutions
for them.
Mrs. Mrunalini Kher
of Yuva Parivartan presented on current situation of employability in India and
efforts of Yuva Parivartan.
·
Though India is shining in some fields,
there is another dark side too.
·
There is lack of employment among rural
and slums youth. There is no motivation, proper guidance and training in
various vocational and soft skills. Increasing school drop-outs is also a
problem.
·
Reaching this young generation at
various levels is also a great task. The boys’ attitude is generally skeptical
but girls have attitude of sharing the sorrows and distresses of their mothers
and have inclination to take training in vocational or other skill for livelihood
earning.
·
Industry and other sectors are also in
search of vocationally, as well as soft skilled man power but are reluctant to
pay handsome salaries.
·
This
attitude needs a change. Voluntary organizations, government agencies, and
industry should come together on a common platform and find out the solution
and, ways and means to impart training to such aspirant rural youth.
Shri Pradeep Tupe
of Yashaswini Institute of Technology told about the efforts of their
Institution to empower rural drop outs or unprivileged students by offering
them a chance to learn while earning.
Shri Chintan Mokashi–
AGM, Non Farm Sector, NABARD, put his remarks.
NABARD’s experience of working with NGOs
is mixed. There are NGOs working with great integrity, at the same time there
are some other NGOs searching for funding only. After pouring some crores
of rupees through various schemes n
programs of various departments, the situation in rural as well as urban areas
is still disappointing. Often it’s seen that the skill & vocational
training courses selected do not match with the local situation; also these
courses are too fancy and have least relevance with the local needs. Looking to
this scenario, NABARD has now changed its policy from total grant support to
loan based projects. Here after NABARD will not provide full grant support to
any project. There will be a partial component of loan/ credit linkage in
support to any project. This provision, we hope, will make the concerned NGOs
more answerable and performing.
Before going for the last session of the conference,
some of the participants were given opportunity to express their institution’s
role in skills training.
·
Shri Milind Joshi
of Swami Vivekanand Samaj Prabodhan Sanstha, Sillod apprised the audience about
his experiences in upliftment of rural tribal women through Bibba nut
processing project. Value addition, experimentation, education and replication
are essentialfor the success of the project.
·
Shri rajesh Shirodkarof
Atharv Foundation in his short remarks observed that 97% of the people do not
have any fixed goal before them. Once a goal is selected it is not difficult to
achieve with proper knowledge, skill, attitude and right action. Any training
is incomplete without practical, and back up training and evaluation.
·
Shri Satish Chauhan,
a dairy consultant gave detailed information about starting a dairy project and
assured of all support for the same.
·
Shri B.K.Mane,
Chairman, Vegetables & Fruit Growers Federation, emphasized the need for
training to fruits &vegetable growers. As per his observation, though India
stands on 1st or 2ndrank in fruit production, there is
40% loss of fruits & vegetables due
to infrastructure unavailability. The schemes of central & state
governments do not reach to the farmers and agriculture as well as other
universities are not reaching to the farmer and delivering the practical
training.
At present there seems to be no
institution in Maharashtra which gives training in vegetable and fruit
processing.
Shri Milind Thatte
summed up the activities of the 2days sessions and requested all the
participants to give feedback on this conference and suggest new ideas if any.
He thanked all the guest lecturers and the participants of behalf of the STRAS
FORUM.
Concluding Session:
Shri Yogesh Kulkarni, Coordinator of the Forum
opened the session with the remark that the two days sessions were informative,
constructive and lively.
He invited remarks and suggestions from the
participants for the further progress of the forum.
Some of the suggestions received from the attendees
are as follows:
Ø More
stress is needed on agriculture based skills training.
Ø Regional
conferences should be organized pertaining to the problems of that region.
Ø Involvement
of rural / slum area worker is needed to understand their problems.
Ø The
lectures / discussions should be focused on the subject. Personal experiences/
remarks may be avoided.
Ø Printed
material of the lectures may be distributed to the participants.
Ø The
use of print and soft media as well as institutional/ personal contacts may be
used for dissemination of the work of the Forum.
Ø A
concrete program may be prepared by the forum for skills development.
Ø The
participant institutions should publish the success stories in their domain and
also comment on the success rate and causes of shortfalls.
Ø The
Forum should arrange exhibition /stalls for the participating institutions.
Ø The
Forum should set goal in various activities.
·
Dr.
Kulkarni in his concluding speech took review of the last two conferences and
added that the response is ever increasing. It has been decided that the
forum‘s work sphere should be escalated to the state and further to nationwide
level.
·
NABARD has agreed to publish the
conference report and supply copies to all concerned.
·
STARS Forum will supply soft copy of the
proceeding to all members and participants.
·
It has been observed that three types of
institutions are participating in the forum
·
As on this day 26 organizations have
accepted the membership of the forum. Participants are requested to become
member and inspire other institutions to join the Forum.
·
The present member institutions are of
three types:
o
Institutions
giving training
o
Institutions
working as linkages
o
Institutions
providing finance & infrastructure.
·
STARS Forum will not have any program of
its own, but will only coordinate the programs of other organizations. Other
member organization will cooperate.
·
Last year the Forum decided to undertake
some work, which has to be completed next year. These include:
o
To
prepare a website,
o
To
start a quarterly e-news letter,
o
Prepare
members list.
·
It has been unanimously decided that the
Steering Committee, will henceforth be known as Executive Board of the Forum
and Dr. Yogesh Kulkarni, now coordinator, will work as Chairman of the Executive
Board of the Forum.
·
The Forum will be registered under
societies registration act.
·
In addition to the current members,
three more members were nominated and unanimously accepted on the Executive Body.
They are:
o
Shri B.K.Mane
o
Shri Vilas Kirote
o
Shri Nene.
·
It has also been decided that the host
institution, topic of discussions and the guest lecturers for the coming
conference shall be decided in advance.
·
Yashaswini Institute of Technology, Pune
has volunteered for hosting the conference of the year 2013.
·
The financial support for the conference
was provided by Bank of Maharashtra and Janaseva Sahakari Bank Ltd.
Pune. Bank of Maharshtra provided sponsorship for the conference material
while Janaseva Sahakari Bank provided general sponsorship.
·
The food arrangement was provided by Mr.
Natu of Ashwamedh Hall free of charge.
·
Dr. Yogesh Kulkarni proposed a vote of
thanks to all those who contributed to the successful organisation of this 3rd
annual conference.
STARS Forum Executive Board-
2013
|
1.Dr. Yogesh Kulkarni- Chairman
Vigyan Ashram, Pabal, Pune Dist.
|
2. Dr. Sudhir Prabhu
01 904 731 3245;
|
|
3. Mr. Milind Thatte
Vayam, Nashik
942 156 4330; 902 800 4330
|
4. Mr. Kiran Inamdar
Hemendra
Kothari Foundation
998
731 5556
|
|
5. Mr. Rajiv Gandhi
Sheti Udyog Bhandar, Swargate, Pune
982
205 2586
|
6. Dr. Kshma Metre
CORD (Chinmaya Organisation for Rural
Development), Sidhbari, HP
+91-1892-234322/236987:
Delhi H.O.
91 11 24616291;989910773
|
|
7. Mrs. Pallavi Shanbhagh
Vigyan Ashram, Pabal, Dist Pune
937 069
2300
|
8. Mr. Pramod Kulkarni
Seva Vardhini, Pune
942 358 0535; 020 24433606
|
|
9. Shri Vilas Khirote
Vishwa Foundation , Sasane nagar, Hadpasar,
Pune.
|
10. Shri Vasant Nene
Lend AHand India, Jeeva Vihar
colony, Off S.B.Road, Pune-16.
|
|
11. Shri
B.K.Mane
|
|
B.Sc. in Facility Services:
