The Hindu : New Delhi News : IP varsity students step forward to work with slum inhabitants

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Wednesday, Jun 25, 2008
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IP varsity students step forward to work with slum inhabitants

Staff Reporter

Project “Parivartan” aims at bringing some change to lives of people living along a railway track near an industrial area

NEW DELHI: Students of various schools of studies at Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University here are trying to bring some change in the lives of the socially and economically backward inhabitants of a slum in the Capital.

Under project “Parivartan”, conceptualised as a part of their college social responsibility, the students have been working with the slum dwellers along a railway track near the Wazirpur industrial area.

“Most of the inhabitants work in the steel factories in the area and have been living under sub-human conditions. They live amid toxic waste, garbage and pollution. We did a pilot study and identified target groups for intervention,” said Sona Vikas, a faculty member supervising the students.

“The project involved bringing some change to the lives of these families by providing suitable means of livelihood, productive business generation, employment opportunities and exposure to new knowledge and skills,” she added.

Focus areas

Some of the focus areas of the project have been health, environment, legislations, entrepreneurship, financial skills and vocational skills training. The main beneficiaries are women, youth and steel factory workers.

The students have liaised with Jan Shikshan Sansthan Prayas as their technical partner to impart vocational skills to women for a sustainable source of income.

Health and sanitation camps for women have also been conducted at the site.

The students have conducted workshops for slum dwellers on a variety of issues including mushroom cultivation to provide them with an alternative source of employment.

“The women have also been given exposure to the concepts of micro-finance, savings and investments for future financial security by resource persons from the Life Insurance Corporation,” said Karan Malhotra, one of the students actively involved in the project.

Programmes for the youth

“For the youth we have arranged personality development and computer literacy workshops so that we can get them employed in different retail stores coming up across the city,” added Ms. Vikas.

A self-help group has already been set up among some of the families in the slum and two rooms in a nearby Municipal Corporation of Delhi school are being used for the vocational training sessions.

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