As part of its efforts to promote sustainable livelihoods, the Essar Foundation
has collaborated with the district administration of Malkangiri, Odisha, for the improvement of infrastructural facilities and other basic amenities in the
district’s remote villages.
According to surveys made by the Planning
Commission of India, these villages have rated very poor in all developmental
indicators. So, in January, 2012, the district administration of Malkangiri drafted a proposal
to provide approximately 20 brick-making machines to the villages.
The motives behind the initiative were:
- To impart residential training to local youth belonging to remote villages
- To create a cadre of nearly 200 trained youth in the art of brick-making
- To provide employment to trainees by setting up brick-making machines in their village itself, with adequate provisions for the initial support needed for setting up a business.
- To purchase these bricks for the construction of houses for those living below the poverty line, under the Indira Awas Yojna program introduced by the Indian government.
To support the project, the Foundation will supply 20 brick-making
machines to the district administration, of which 10 have already been procured
and delivered. After receiving the first lot of machines, the district administration began the training of local youth.
The training program, planned in five phases, aims to accommodate as many as 200 people. As part of the training, the students receive both classroom and practical training. Once training is complete, they receive a certificate of completion. Post-training, machines will be installed in each of their respective villages. One machine is set to provide employment to 10 people.
In the first and second phases, a total of 80 youths, from seven Gram Panchayats (village administrations), have received training at the Industrial Training Institute (ITI), Malkangiri. In addition to this, the participation from eight pipeline villages, namely, Rathaguda, Palliguda, Purunapani, RSC-19, RSC-8, RSC-11, RSC-10 and Rajulakonda, have been registered already.
