Hyderabad: Helping youth stand on their feet

Hyderabad: A Hyderabad city-based voluntary group has become a beacon of hope and guiding force for youth who wish to stand on their feet. Scores of differently abled who were struggling during the pandemic benefited from its gesture.

Through crowd funding, the 8-year-old Youth4jobs Foundation trained and helped them overcome the lockdown blues and get their lives back on track. The NGO which closely monitored the changing scenario during lockdown found that due to COVID19 pandemic, the most vulnerable sections, mainly disabled (divyangan) were extremely affected. Abhijit A M who suffers from locomotor disability said, "Youth4Jobs gave me the best opportunity. I am now working with Assure Edge Global Services as Customer Support Associate with Rs 12,000 as my salary."

India has around 2.68 crores of the disabled population which is 2% of the total population. 69% live in the villages. 75% of the disabled populations are outside the workforce. The average literacy among the disabled population is 52% as against the national average of 74%. Thus, people with disabilities are disproportionately poor and marginalised.

Naveena Kandraboina was born in a fisherman's family, besides being poor she was speech and hearing impaired. The 26-year old had battled all odds and completed her SSC success. Her alcoholic father began stealing from the household savings to fund his addiction. Soon, he was hospitalised and the family ran huge medical bills. Naveena and her two sisters found themselves deep in debt and joined their mother as daily wage earners. Facing creditors at their doorstep was a daily ordeal for these young women.

Just as Naveena gave up hopes of furthering her education and her prospects at a better life, a friend introduced her to the Youth 4 Jobs programme. Naveena was skeptical at first on how the programme would help a speech and hearing-impaired girl. The two-month programme also meant that she could not carry on with her daily wage job, which would be a huge loss of income.

Backed by sound advice from the Y4J counsellors, Naveena completed the programme and was placed in a leading e-commerce company in Hyderabad. Her annual income is now over Rs 1.2 lakh, which is three times the family income. "I will always be grateful to Youth4jobs which transformed my life and made me independent. Though I have a disability and being a girl, I am proud to support my family in these difficult times." says a confident Naveena

Founded and led by Meera Shenoy, the foundation is hopeful of converting disaster to an opportunity. "In Covid times, Youth4Jobs converted disaster to an opportunity. The online training programme was launched as a Covid response. We've started multiple online batches to benefit every segment of the disability group. It has helped Youth4Jobs scale from 18 to 29 States in India including remote parts of Assam and J&K. Till date, we have trained and linked 2,300 youth linking them to a sustainable livelihood." said Meera.

Over 25,000 young men and women with disabilities have benefited from across 29 states in the country in the last 8 years. To reach out to the more vulnerable sections of the society the foundation has started a crowdfunding campaign with Milaap. Shenoy says, "We found jobs for the trained youth with disabilities in e-commerce, logistic and manufacturing companies. Unicef chose our work as one of the best practises in Covid times in South Asia."