Upskilling Youngsters! Know How This Foundation Is Transforming Lives Of Underprivileged People In India

India has a staggering population of 1.3 billion, of which over 800 million are in the working age group', and 98 per cent of this population is in the informal labor force, without consistent earning, security, and access to the basic amenities needed for a decent living. The number signifies the urgency to empower the youth who will be India's future.

For the same purpose, Anudip Foundation was launched in 2007 following an ethnographic study in the Sunderbans region, the largest mangrove forest of West Bengal, which suggested that the economies of marginalised people can be improved through digital empowerment and employment.

Over the last 15 years, It has sought to work and transform the lives of India's milling youth population living in the depths of poverty. The foundation claims that over 150,000 families and 400,000 individuals have benefitted from its counselling, skilling and livelihood programs.

The purpose-driven foundation, while talking with The Logical Indian, said, "Our origin is thus rooted in a strong culture of research, which has endured over the years – for example, the use of the ADDIE model and Gagne's Nine Events Framework in curriculum development, experiential/active/latent learning, neural plasticity, mnemonics from Cognitive Science in crafting training mechanisms, or Kirkpatrick's model for evaluating training programs."

According to the foundation, a vital lens is kept on gender balance for students as over 1 lakh of the students trained are young girls. They take up what in their communities would be termed typical of women's careers - working in cutting-edge technologies. The students at Anudip Foundation have seen, on average 240 per cent increase in family income after securing jobs, leading to transformative, sustainable change.

"Our students are made future-ready with skills for new economy technology enabled careers for the 21st Century (gig, self-made or employed) and to serve as global citizens. The transformation from extremely disadvantaged, difficult lives to able industry resources can be facilitated through meaningful partnerships with corporations, in-depth counselling, and customised and curated technical curriculum," the foundation added.

'Futurepro' Livelihood Programme

The foundation has also launched several livelihood programs under which they aim to empower the youth with different skills. 'Future' is one such program that enhances 21st-century talent with the right set of skills. It was launched in 2019 and aimed to prepare youth aged 15 years and above to build tangible and measurable behaviors relevant to the 21st Century,

Future is a highly scalable module shaped by a deep understanding of the needs of underserved youth. This module is formed to teach our students the critical skills for job readiness at an early age and enables them to prepare for the outside market with the required skills.

Apart from Futurepro, the foundation also runs several other livelihood programs, including DIYA, a mainstream technology-driven skills development program for at-risk youth and Deep tech to improve the technical capabilities with emerging digital transformation.

Using Technology To Empower Youth

Technology is the backbone of Anudip, which includes its involvement from start to implementation. The programs are structured around technology learning experiences and new-economy career opportunities for career aspirants from socially-excluded locations.

The complete digitisation of the curriculum with customised content, interactive multimedia, and games, thus making it compelling for remote and rural students in a blended learning environment. Anudip has transformed its pedagogy from a lecture-based training model to a combined mix of smartphone and tablet-based self-learning, guided in-centre practice, and mentoring.

Youth participants say that they are trained on various skills related to communication and financial literacy through a technology-enabled platform that uses gamification and other interactive features in multimedia to make the learning engaging and impactful.

Anudip's Learning Management System (LMS) complements the core technical training and, manages student coursework; keeps track of the progress and performance of students. It has been developed in-house, keeping in mind the different language abilities of youth from various educational backgrounds.

Being a not-for-profit in high-end technology careers, Anudip remains a niche player in the significant growth of 'skill development' training institutes that focus on other sectors such as manufacturing, construction, hospitality, retail, etc. Anudip focuses on not only building relevant skill sets but also creating sustained change. The training that the beneficiaries go through brings about a permanent change.

Know The CEO Of Anudip

Monisha Banerjee, who is the CEO of Anudip, is a philanthropic leader, a mentor, and a strategist who leads the Human Transformation Model powered by Technology for mass application.

She believes that people, irrespective of age, race, gender, and geography, can be empowered by Education and Digital Skills to access new-age Livelihoods. Her core passion for academics, rightly juxtaposed with a keen interest in Technology for good, urged her to lead Anudip as a CEO to benefit more than 150,000 socially-excluded youth and women with 21st-century careers.

She leads a team of over 600 people to create a profound impact on neglected at-risk communities through Technology and digital skills training while accruing benefit to all stakeholders through scale by creating a formidable community of global citizens of tomorrow.

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