New Delhi: Amid complaints that Kashmiri youths, even those employed under government schemes, find it difficult to get rented accommodation outside the state, the Rural Development Ministry has decided to step in and provide them bonafide certificates to solve this problem.
The Centre’s move comes after it noticed an increase in dropout rate of Kashmiri youths who were trained and given placement at entry level jobs in various companies under the Himayat Programme.
Under the ambitious programme, 1,003 youths from the Valley have been trained and given placement so far at entry level since December last year.
However, 25 per cent of them had to quit due to a variety of reasons including difficulties in getting accommodation.
“One important reason is that in places like Delhi, Chandigarh, Shimla, Jaipur… landlords are not willing to give accommodation to Kashmiris,” Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh said.
Observing that the government has to take a “much more active role”, Ramesh said his Ministry mill guarantee “the bonafides of these boys”.
“We can’t afford a 25 per cent dropout rate. So this is one operational problem we have,” he said.
Some of the youths, who were given employment in foreign establishments operating in India and dealing in meat, also quit their job as they had a doubt over whether it was ‘halal meat’.
Out of 1,003 youths, 15 per cent of them are girls. These are entry level jobs. They get over Rs 5000 in their hand per month after deducting Provident Fund (PF). Under the project, the Ministry has given jobs to the youths in companies like Cafe Coffee Day, V-Mart, Bajaj Alliance, Airtel Call Centre, Best Price (Bharti Walmart), Uninor, Domino’s Pizza, Easy Day, Eureka Fobes, Pizza Hut, Hotel Miraj, Mafoi Consultancy, Hotel Rotana, Khyber Hospital and NIIT.
Ramesh said ‘Himayat’ is a training-cum-placement programme for unemployed youth in Jammu and Kashmir and 100,000 youth will be trained under the scheme in five years.
He said the Centre has decided to take much more active steps to provide entry-level jobs in private firms to unemployed youths of the Jammu and Kashmir.
“We have recruited three more agencies (to provide placements). We are going to have second round of appointment letters. On June 30th, we will have 2000 more placement letters. We are on target,” he said.
Placements will be largely in the service sector both in Jammu and Kashmir and outside the state, the Minister said. (PTI)
