The number of college-dropouts in our country is staggering. Only 10 per cent of all children of a college going age ever go to college. The rest are dropouts.
And this number worries Suman Bhowmick who left a corporate job to start an NGO - Sparsh Foundation.
His NGO is dedicated to finding a meaningful vocation for at least some girls among a large ocean of dropouts. The Kolkata-based organisation imparts them free vocational training and assured placements.
The girls are put through a nine-month course in dress making of which the first six months are with Sparsh and the remaining with institutes like the Apparel Training & Design Center, under Apparel Export Promotion Council, Ministry of Textiles, government of India.
Girls are also awarded certificates by West Bengal State Council for Technical Education.
They have on an average bagged jobs ranging between Rs 1,500 and Rs 2,000 per month, which usually go up to Rs 4,000 per month after a year.
Students have been placed at Fortune Apparel, Passport Jeans and Fabindia offices for stitching garments.
Krishna and Anuradha are two such girls . Krishna's father died when she was in class VIII.
After completing close to a year of training under Sparsh Foundation, Krishna went to ATDC for the final 3-month training. "I am now working with one of the best designers. I am given a catalogue and designs. I have to copy it on garments and stitch it," Krishna said.
Krishna started off with a salary of close to Rs 2,000 and after a year's experience, started earning Rs 3,000 per month.
Anuradha's story is similar. "I could not study beyond class 12 due to financial crunch. But after the training I received from Sparsh and subsequently from ATDC, I am now a quality control professional and check finished garments for defects and manage alteration, etc," said Anuradha. Anuradha works with Passport Jeans.
Suman Bhowmick, director, Sparsh Foundation has been running the foundation with scarce funds.
His organisation had trained 400 girls, 250 of whom found work. The remaining have either got married or were discouraged from working. Sparsh funded their training which cost Rs 22,000 per girl.
The NGO received Rs 1.5 lakh from Nabard and Rs 3.5 lakh from the department of technical education and training, government of West Bengal.
Now, Bhowmick wants the training to be self-funded. Says Bhowmick: "We are in talks with a private bank for an arrangement under which Sparsh would be able to send girls to the bank for micro-educational loans and the bank would provide them credit without any collatral. Once these girls finish education and find jobs, they would repay the loans."
"So far, Sparsh does not have a training centre of its own. It finds other NGOs to give it some space where we put up our machines and train students.," said Bhowick
Sparsh is also trying to find an NGO with a national footprint to carry its work forward in various other cities.
