Alappuzha is set to become the first district in the country to ensure complete career literacy for the scheduled tribe community.
A report prepared based on an eight-month-long field survey as part of the ‘Sahayanam’ project, being implemented under the aegis of the National Service Scheme (NSS) unit at Sanatana Dharma College, Alappuzha, will be released on Tuesday.
The NSS unit is implementing ‘Sahayanam’ with the support of the Scheduled Tribes Development department and Cochin Shipyard. The report contains social, economic, and educational among other details of 2,896 people belonging to 945 scheduled tribe families.
Officials said that follow-up measures to ensure the overall development of Scheduled Tribes in the district based on the survey would be implemented in coordination with various government departments, local self-government institutions, non-government organisations, and so on.
The project will ensure career guidance coverage for scheduled tribes. Specially trained NSS volunteers will visit houses and conduct psychometric tests for students. It will evaluate students’ personality, aptitude, abilities, and interest areas, and help them make career decisions. “Our aim is to achieve complete career literacy. Career mapping of Scheduled Tribe students will be done based on the tests. They will be given necessary instructions from time to time,” said S. Lekshmi, NSS programme officer.
The project aims to provide training for students preparing for entrance exams. A project will be launched with the support of Alappuzha district panchayat for giving coaching to civil service aspirants. Scheduled Tribes Development and Labour departments will jointly launch a programme to train candidates for exams conducted by the Public Service Commission, Staff Selection Commission, and so on. To ensure better education, the students will be provided tuition and mentoring.
A.M. Ariff, MP, is the chairman of ‘Sahayanam’ programme. Officials said the development of basic infrastructure in Scheduled Tribe colonies in the Alappuzha Lok Sabha constituency would be carried out using the Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme funds. The project implementation is monitored by a team led by District Collector Haritha V. Kumar.
The field survey report will be submitted to Mr. Ariff by State NSS officer R.N. Anzer in a function to be held at SD College.
