Bhubaneswar : With an objective to empower slum girls and make them self-sufficient, the Smart City mission has taken up a social initiative in Bhubaneswar Town Centre District (BTCD). Under the programme, girls who are interested to adopt professional skills to earn a living will be imparted training on driving.
Under the ‘socially smart’ project of Bhubaneswar Smart City Limited (BSCL), girls in slums under BTCD areas will given vocational training on avenues which have traditionally remained a male bastion. Even as the initiative has just been rolled out, it could be a success story for many girls belonging to the underprivileged sector.
An international taxi aggregator has evinced interest to employ women as drivers for its local fleet. BSCL’s ‘socially smart’ project is being executed with an active participation of UNFPA and implementing partner Humara Bachpan. These organisations have been been conducting capacity building and orientation programmes for girls and youths in the slums of BTCD.
After three months of interactive sessions and training programmes, the results have been quite encouraging in some of the BTCD slums. The programmes were conducted among adolescent girls in four slums – Shantipalli in Sahid Nagar, Shanti Nagar and Jagannnath Basti in Kharvel Nagar and Kedarpalli in Bapuji Nagar. As many as 13 girls from these slums expressed interest for driving training.
The girls were prepared to appear for the test in order to get admission for the two-month driving training course at State Driving Training Institute in the City. Four of them successfully passed the test and have been selected for the training which involves theory as well as practical sessions.
The four girls – Subhashree Pattnaik (22), Purnima Swain (18), Anjana Sarkar (24) and Samina Nayak (19) from Shantipalli slum are undergoing training from June 2.
After completion of training in the City, the girls will be entitled for another residential skill development programme at HMV Driving Testing Institute in Chatia in Jajpur district. Once they complete their training at Chhatia centre, the girls can be inducted into commercial jobs. The BSCL has set a target to train 50 girls by the end of this year under this initiative.
Note: News shared for public awareness with reference from the information provided at online news portals.
