Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik’s special emphasis on generating employment opportunities, with focus on people residing in the rural areas, has galvanized government departments and various agencies connected with them. They are coming up with new ideas and initiatives that promise to rev up the livelihood scenario.
An important move in this direction has been made by Odisha Rural Development and Marketing Society (ORMAS), which has launched an initiative to generate multiple livelihood possibilities in the rural areas by establishing panchayat resource centres (PRCs). ORMAS, in collaboration with Mission Shakti and Horticulture department, set up its first panchayat vegetable resource centre at Gelapur village under Kantapada block of Cuttack district last week. The centre, run by Maa Annapurna Producers Group, is set to undertake several activities to augment the villagers’ income.
The new venture is set to bring about an economic revolution in the village. The producer group has 25 members who had initially started vegetable cultivation on 4-5 acres of land. But gradually they extended the farm area to 25 acres. They have been earning around Rs 30 lakh annually by growing seasonal vegetables like cauliflower, cabbage, gourd, beans, brinjal and okra. They are expected to make a success of the newly set up vegetable resource centre since they already have a lot of experience in this field.
The centre, which will rely heavily on cutting-edge technology, has a seeds bank and storage facilities for fertiliser and saplings. It will disseminate knowledge on production and marketing information system. It will also carry out awareness activities on different government programmes and schemes besides coordinating with the line departments. The programmes aimed at skill upgradation of the rural youth will be conducted in cooperation with Rural Self Employment Training Institutes and Jan Sikshan Sansthan.
This is the new employment generation model that eminently suits the needs of rural youth in Odisha. It helps those at the lowest rung of the economic ladder with hardly any educational qualifications to back them. They can earn their livelihood through such initiatives.
The government at the same time has also been working on developing employment models that cater to the needs of skilled workers both in rural and urban areas. The need to come up with such a model was felt after lakhs of migrant Odia labourers returned to the state last year following corona-induced lockdowns in the cities where they worked outside Odisha. Unemployment made them desperate and they returned to their home state in the hope of finding jobs that would help keep their kitchen fires burning.
The Odisha government came to their rescue immediately. While their health needs were taken care of, the government assured them of jobs that would suit their skills. A lot of progress has already been made in this direction but a lot more needs to be done. Hopefully, soon no one in Odisha – either skilled or unskilled – will be without a job.
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