Inclusive Growth!
Among the many young volunteers I spent time with were Rahul( Class 12), Sunil Gaikwad( MA, B.Ed), Ghanshyam Mhaske(BA), all from Village Mahunale(Chakur block). I was keen to understand their backgrounds, motivations and future plans. While they are all reasonably educated, none of their families own land; they have no hope of picking up a government job, while they have limited access and skills for private sector jobs.

For the moment, they are deeply involved as volunteers, but what will happen a few years hence when 4000 aware, educated youth stare at a blank future?
Clearly, agriculture needs to be enhanced via greater productivity and new techniques. Allied activities like dairy farming need to come into play. But, there is little evidence or effort right now in Latur district.
Equally important, Self-employment will also be a key ingredient. But, as the enlightened T.K Navale pointed out, to succeed, self-employment needs training and success stories. Among the few successes that Navale could point out is a Food Stall. “ The Idli-vada stall has long queues”, as he says, but Latur district needs many more success stories and answers to crack the livelihood challenge.

This entry was posted on Friday, August 8th, 2008 at 7:56 am and is filed under Inclusive Growth, Indian Economy, On The Road. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.