From a vision to a war cry

A screenshot of the chocolate making session

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Covid-19 has unsettled our resettled country by enforcing spatial, social and economic transition of people. What this essentially means is that without a well-planned and a well implemented intervention, the development indicators of India of 2020 could look very much like the development indicators of India of 1900s. Fortunately, neither the people in India nor the leaders of the country are unaware of the potential implications of the ongoing churning.

In a televised address to the nation, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyaan or the Self-reliant India Mission. The ultimate objective of the mission is to transform India into a manufacturing hub and to help citizens tide over the economic perils caused by the pandemic.

The question that we, as citizens and as change makers, should worry about is not ‘if India will become self-reliant’ rather ‘how much of India can become self-reliant in a given period of time, with a given set of resources’. Mr. Pradeep Singh, a Lucknow based CSR professional, has adopted the vision of the Prime Minister and has devised an exhaustive webinar series that aims to provide vocational training to the participants who are primarily people residing in the villages across the country. In Mr. Singh’s theory of change, vocational training will help introduce newer income and livelihood options for the rural populations, create self-reliant rural entrepreneurs, provide resilience to the rural economy from future shocks, and will thereby contribute to the strengthening and swelling of the national economy.

The vocational training sessions, planned within the series, are meticulously crafted and they touch upon each aspect on the demand and supply sides of the vocation. For instance, a session in chocolate making does not only include a lesson in making the chocolate. It also includes a lesson in where to buy the raw materials from, how to package the product and how to market it. Training is imparted by professionals with several years of experience in the vocation. What makes these sessions all the more invaluable is the knowledge shared by eminent individuals who grace the session with their domain knowledge. IPS Mr. Sanjeeb Patjoshi who inaugurated the series on the 27th of July, spoke about the scope of vocational learning in rural settings and about a variety of rural enterprises that are, in some way or the other, supported by the central and/or the state government.

The webinar series is a bag of everything that our country needs right now. It illustrates the power of courage; nothing but courage can make such an exhaustive plan work. It reminds of the fact that there is a world beyond Covid and that we must not lose hope. Most importantly, it represents the will to fight and the will to never give up. The Bookmark Agency will be covering the series till the 4th of September 2020. You can contact us if you wish to be a part of the sessions. The entry fee is only Rs. 50 and all the collections are being forwarded to an orphanage in Lucknow.

#AtmanirbharBharatWebinarSeries