The Ramakrishna Mission Ashram (RKMS), Sohra will set up an alternative livelihood centre to run vocational courses for drop out students, women and tribals from the Northeastern states.
The centre which will be named, “Swavalamban Alternate Livelihood Unit for the East” (SALUTE) will be supported by the Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI), the country’s principal financial institution for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME).
SALUTE which was jointly announced today by SIDBI DMD, V. Satya Venkata Rao and RKM Maharaj will run vocational courses on weaving, tailoring, fashion designing, knitting, embroidery, product development etc. The priority target segments would be school dropouts, skilled but unemployed, unemployed needing skills, migrants during covid, unserved/underserved segments etc.
Maharaj mentioned that supporting the initiative brings firm resolve of SIDBI and RKM to institutionalise the swavalamban culture in State and Northeast. He informed that RKM runs 77 schools and running co-branded skilling courses would mainstream the school dropouts through swavalamban.
He also briefed about the activities being undertaken by the Ashrama and the achievements of the existing Swavalamban Centre already running with the help from SIDBI for skill upgradation of women for tailoring and textile design.
He also thanked SIDBI for support for providing an ambulance fitted with lifesaving equipments during the peak of Covid-19 which helped the Ashrama to provide timely medical facilities to few hundred needy persons from far off places of the State.
Rao said that SALUTE is the initiative under SIDBI’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) to boost entrepreneurship development and also to support sustainable emergence of youth from the region wherein they can explore and adapt to alternate livelihood opportunities.
