Umran: State Bank of India’s, Rural Self-Employment Training Institute (RSETI) located within the premises of the Regional Rural Training Institute (RRTC) Umran, on Monday gave out certificates to 32 young women trained to become beauticians.
These young lady entrepreneurs from different parts of Meghalaya will now launch their own enterprises and set up beauty parlours with loan assistance from nationalised banks. This is the first batch of entrepreneurs in the beauty business trained by RSETI.
The RSETI was started in 2009 in collaboration with the State Government’s Rural Development Department and the Union Ministry of Commerce. The objective of this initiative is to skill the youth to become entrepreneurs.
State Bank of India provides the mentorship and hand-holding for two years for each of the trainees who have completed their training. State Bank of India also facilitates access to loans from public sector banks for these skilled entrepreneurs.
The RSETI provides ongoing training programmes in pig rearing, poultry farming, tailoring, dress designing and many others.
SBI discusses with the Deputy Commissioner, Ri Bhoi District about the market requirements in which people need to be skilled. So far about five hundred youth have been trained by a professional faculty drawn from different areas of expertise.
Also being trained at the same Institute are Business Correspondents and Customer Service Points. The first group is trained to visit homes in the villages and create awareness about banking procedures while the second group can become mini banks.
All they need is a laptop with internet connection to connect with the nearest State Bank of India office. The CSPs go from house to house to open accounts for people. For each account opened they get a commission of Rs 20 and Rs 12 for every withdrawal.
Addressing the 120 trainees of various groups Mr Nixon Joseph, Assistant General Manager, SBI urged them to be passionate about what they intend to take up and to utilise their skills effectively.
He told the trainees that they should work diligently and make sure to repay the loans because defaulters would find it difficult to access loans in the future. “Dream big and you will succeed,” Nixon Joseph added.
Fr James Mani, Director, RRTC said this training was part of the State Government’s livelihoods agenda under the 9 Missions of the Integrated Basin Development and Livelihoods Programme. He said training should lead to sustainable livelihoods so that people should not remain poor forever.
Others who spoke on the occasion included L. Kharshiing, Director, RSETI, A. Syiemlieh former Director, RSETI, A. Lyngdoh from the Soil and Water Conservation Dept and P. Mukhim, Editor, The Shillong Times.
