Skill Building Programme

India has the youngest population on a global basis. This should actually be a huge demographic dividend but it is not because most of these young men and women in the age group of 15 – 30 years have no employable skills. The country therefore has just 3 - 5 years before this huge potential human resource becomes a huge demographic liability.

The above described situation has created two urgent and related challenges :

1. India is soon going to be faced with a huge shortage of people with the right skill sets if the 8 % + GDP growth rate, that it has achieved over the last few years is to be maintained. The shortage exists over a wide range of skill sets ranging from people with simple technical skills to those with highly specialized skills. Since trained manpower with the right set of skills is in very short supply , growth of Indian Industry and even our social sphere is under threat.

2. The second issue relates to ecology and the environment. If we train all our people for jobs that are only found in cities we will be setting the stage for an ecological disaster in the form of un-sustainable cities and dying villages.

Skill development based on the needs of the local economy in every region across India is therefore a major focus area and goal of the Nataraja Foundation. We also believe that people should not have to go to the cities to find work, so our focus is on local employment for men and women.

The Nataraja Foundation is in the process of planning and executing a pilot project to train people and build necessary skill sets in a few small towns based on the needs of the local economy. Skills will be imparted in such a way that people can build sustainable, healthy and environmentally sustainable livelihoods leading to an enhanced quality of life.