The DDUGKY migration support centre and call centre started at Vytilla, Kochi, the commercial capital of Kerala is being a boon to many. It’s walk-in resource centre opened for the successful trainees of DDU-GKY, who are displaced from their native places in search of better employment prospects. Kudumbashree Mission has been working to reduce the vagaries associated with migration of the DDU-GKY youth in three ways by offering them suitable training opportunities, helping them prepare for employment away from home and by providing counseling and support services for a reasonable period of time which would enable them to adapt to a foreign environment. Migration Support Centres (MSCs) established at Kochi is a further step in this direction.

Migration Support Centre offers counseling, access to information, acclimatization support and targeted services to displaced workers. It’s services also include pre-migration preparatory support for both domestic and abroad placed candidates, post-placement counseling, registering migrant workers and undertaking periodic counseling, facilitate accommodation, undertaking qualitative research amongst candidates and employers as follow-up to post placement tracking, job retention and career progression counseling, facilitation for securing utility services, provide inter-department or inter-institution liaison support, providing support to workers in case of exigencies and work disputes etc.

A call centre is also set up for the DDU-GKY candidates within Migration Support Centre which will help in resolving the grievances of candidates and act as an important source of information for candidates, and would also act as Public Grievance Redressal system. The job portal would enable the employer to select the appropriate aspirant from a pool of trained candidates from training centres across the state. The employees would also get the information on the current openings as well. The monitoring of the same would be done by the Kudumbashree SRLM. The software will have provision to update the data of the 20,000 candidates of DDU-GKY who had received job placements till now, which will help in tracking the candidates. The Migration Support Centre was started in Kochi itself as most of the students find job opportunities in Kochi.

The Attappady Skill Training Programme being implemented at the tribal settlements of Attappady of Palakkad District make significant achievement.The job training of 159 tribal youth had been completed and out of them 111 students got job placements.

The tribal students from Attappady Tribal Settlement had been depending upon the training centres at Palakkad and other neighboring districts which had eventually lead to higher drop out, as the Attappady tribal youth didn’t prefer to stay away from their native place. As a solution to eliminate the dropouts, Kudumbashree Mission launched the training centre at Attappady, the only tribal intensive block in Kerala.

SB Global, the Project Implementing Agency of Kudumbashree Mission started their training centre in Attappady and offered courses such as Domestic Electrician, Welding and Plumbing. Handholding was done by the Kudumbashree SRLM by extending assistance to temporarily set up the training centre in a governmental building at Attappady. As training centre was opened in Attappady, the rural youth began showing interest towards the skill traing programme of DDU-GKY and the dropout rate was lowered. As of now, 111 out if the 159 trained youth had secured got job placements.

Medical Kits and uniforms were distributed to the newly joined entrepreneurs of Santhwanam programme during the one day workshop organised at Maria Rani Convention Centre, Thiruvananthapuram on 20 April 2018. The Medical kit and uniforms were distributed by Shri. S. Harikishore, Executive Director, Kudumbashree Mission. Dr. Vijayakumar, Secretary, Health Action by People (HAP) presided over the function.

The uniform and Medical kit including BP apparatus, Cholesterol meter, body fat monitor, sugar meter etc were given away to 10 participants among the 60 women who had received training from Health Action by People (HAP). The Santhwanam team provide door to door diagnostic services to the needy patients who cannot regularly visit clinics of pathological laboratories. The services offered by the entrepreneurs include a one-time screening of individuals at their homes and follow up check-ups. The screening tests include measurements or estimation of height, body weight, body mass index, body fat, blood pressure, and blood glucose.

About 300 Santhwanam units are working across the state. Kudumbashree Mission. Training of 60 women had been completed. The bank loan to buy medical equipments and two wheelers will be issued to the interested entrepreneurs. Dr. Vijayakumar, Secretary, Health Action by People (HAP), Dr. Sanjay Nair, Assistant Professor,Pulmonary Medicine and Joint Secretary, Health Action by People (HAP), Shri. N. Jajajeevan, State Co-ordinator, Haritha Mission answered the questions of the entrepreneurs. Shri. Gopakumar. K, Senior Project Officer, Santhwanam and Smt. Akhila, State Assistant Programme Manager, Kudumbashree lead the workshop. Smt. Niranjana, Programme Officer, Kudumbashree Mission extended Vote of Thanks.

Kudumbashree Mission will give skill training to the coastal youth of the state through Kudumbashree- Sagarmala programme. The training would be extended through the centrally designed skill training programme, Deen Dayal Upadhyay Grameen Kaushalya Yojana (DDU-GKY) being implemented in the state through Kudumbashree Mission. The programme would be piloted among the coastal youth of Ernakulam and Kozhikode districts who would be the beneficiaries of the programme. Kudumbashree plans to give skill training to 3000 students in the coming 3 years. The convergence Project is a collaborative effort by Ministry of Shipping (MoS) and Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD), which aims at skilling the coastal communities for wage employment in port and maritime sector. Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD) has assigned Kudumbashree Mission as the Nodal agency for the implementation of Sagarmala Project in Kerala.

The courses would be of 3 months to 1 year duration. In the first phase, skill training would be extended in the job sectors like, life guards, fish and sea food processing, deep sea fishing, crane operating, electric arc welding etc. By extending skill training and ensuring the placement through this programme, the life style of the rural youth would be improved. The empanelling process of the Project Implementing Agencies are progressing.Once the detailed analysis of the agencies would be over, the project report would be submitted for the approval of the committee. On getting the approval, the training programme would be started in 45 days time. The beneficiaries of the programme would be identified through District Mission Co-ordinators, Block Co-ordinators, Community Resource Persons, CDS, ADS members etc.