The Purkal Youth Development Society

Our Failures over the Years


1.	In a bid to economically empower the women of the Community an attempt was made during the period May 2001 and December 2003, to make and market South Indian Namkeens and sweets. A Society was registered for the purpose and about 15 women of the Community constituted its members and managed it with our help. Mrs Swamy helped the women learn to make more than a dozen namkeens and a dozen or so sweets. A house in the village was rented, equipments purchased with donations given by Mr. Swamy and his friends. The women who were beneficiaries managed the offices of President/Secretary/Treasure and operated the bank accounts. Over 50 shops in the City marketed the products that carried the brand name of ‘Aunty’s’. The products were well appreciated and the participating women members were benefited, each of them earning an average of Rs. 3,000. The participating women could not however carry the products to the various shops and handle the distribution aspect of the business due to their inability and disinclination to move out of the village. They therefore employed a few boys to undertake this work for a certain commission. The Group also won contracts from the Doon School and The Welham Girls School for supply of breakfast of Iddlis and Dosas. The work of distribution involved the maintenance of accounts of the various shops to whom the products had been supplied and the details of the monies collected and of the ‘returns’. The boys of the village employed for the purpose failed to live up to these demands and the entire operation failed as a result. The women who only knew how to manufacture and not market or relate with the consumers could not carry on the operations. The venture thus came to a halt. The capital Equipments which were donated to the operation by the Swamys continues to be available to the three women of this erstwhile Society who have since then taken over the responsibility of cooking for the children of PYDS. Although this effort was not part of the PYDS History, it was the forerunner of the Women empowerment effort..
2.	Another attempt that did not work out was our Programme to empower some of the identified young adults with skills related to the learning of English and the handling of Computers. We noticed that there is a definite demand for people with these skills and that there is a good prospect of their getting employed as front office supports. We did offer it to about twenty of them free of charge, employing help to conduct the classes. At that time, the Society did not have the advantage of the physical facilities of the Learning Centre that we now enjoy. Rented premises were used. We suspended the work as some of the young adults (boys and girls) discontinued their learning as soon as offers of a job came their way after their having acquired the most elementary competence with English and Computers. Others dropped out discouraged after a few months of learning. Results in terms a job were expected within a short period of three months. The other negative of the Programme was that it did not offer a recognised Diploma or a Degree at the end of a period of time.
3.	Another initiative that did not succeed was our effort to teach the young girls working with Stree Shakti (SS), over a short period of two hours of the day, English and Computers, so that they could bid for a career different from quilting if they so wished. These instructions were given by Yuva Shakti(YS)This initiative attracted very enthusiastic response to begin with. It however failed since the girls spent two hours commuting to these classes (The SS building was at that time not in close proximity of the YS building as it is now). The loss in wages that they suffered as a consequence was not appreciated, since the girls worked essentially for the wage. The PYDS Society could not consider subsidising the wage to enable these girls to learn. We now know that although this is a very laudable objective that is very appreciated it will not succeed unless the time that these girls would spend learning is paid for and subsidised.
4.	One other initiative that was still born relates to our attempt to help young people from the Community who dropped out of school to pursue and complete their 10th and 12th class examinations through the ‘National Open School’ system. We did employ a teacher who could help but the effort fizzled out for the following reasons: (a) The Young people who volunteered to the programme were all wage earners. They therefore wanted to study only after 6PM. We could not hold our classes at that desired time of the day but offered it between 5 and 7PM to enable the Society use the services of the teachers who were working in the core PYDS Programme. If we had organised the programme between 6 and 8PM there would have been more takers. (b) Since to NOS, unlike the conventional school permits the applicants to choose any combination of subjects and in many different medium of Instructions, a heterogeneous group of subjects and in different languages needed to be catered to. It was not viable to handle these options. (c) The numbers available in the Community to study the different combination of subjects were not viable. It often boiled down to only one student capable of being instructed at one point of time. The Society could not afford the large numbers of teachers that this scheme demanded. (d) The boys/Girls who came up as candidates for this Programme needed to travel to our Learning Centre after a days labour, perhaps as construction workers. They would thus arrive in class covered with grime and perspiration. A good bath or atleast a good wash was essential if they had to study for the next two hours. We were not equipped to provide this infrastructure. (e) Some of them could not afford the cost of a public transport that they would use to reach our facility. Most also complained of hunger since they were used to a good evening meal after the day’s hard labour, something that had to be postponed in the context of the classes. Yet others found it impossible to go back to their shanties and cook before eating and retiring for the day. We realised that if we wished to run such a Programme these students needed to be supported with subsidised bus fare, a bathroom for a nice bath and perhaps a hot meal before the classes. The classes had to be held between 6 and 8PM every day. The effort did not go completely wasted. One of the girls who participated in the programme, did complete her 10th and 12th classes, underwent training as a Para nurse with our assistance and is presently employed as a nursing assistant by a very respected private Boarding school for girls, enjoying both status and income as a respected member of the School’s resident staff. Another boy after completing his studies is today employed as an Office Assistant at Gurgaon and is moving forward as a trusted employee of his firm.
5.	Our efforts at providing Career Counselling support to all our children at the Class 9 and the Class 11 stage has also been halting and imperfect. We had an offer from Dr. Amrita Dass of Lucknow and we used her sporadically four years ago. For the next two years we used Dr. Anjali, one of Dr. Amrita’s team, located at Mussorie to help us. Dr. Anjali passed away last year. We now depend on Mrs. Namrata Pandy, the resident Career Counsellor of The Doon School to help us. While both she and the Doon school have formally agreed to help, limitations of time and the fact that it is voluntary work militates against its effectiveness.
6.	An attempt is also being made to provide some work exposure to students who complete their 12th programme for a period of 2 months after their CBSE examination. This was accomplished during the summer of 2008 but has not been organised for the summer of 2009 although offers of help are available.