SEDI Chirawa took an innovative route to encourage more women enrollment and job continuity post training - by honouring the female trainees' mothers. For each female trainee who spent more than 6 months at her workplace, her mother was felicitated with a cheque of Rs. 5,000/- at a public function.

When Leena first joined SEDI, she was the only person from her village, Hathbandh to do so. Ridiculing her, the neighbours made fun of her efforts - "Look at her attending an institute that promises a job after just 3 months of training!" they would laugh. But she was quietly confident that her time at Ambuja Foundation's Skill & Entrepreneurship Development Institute would soon deliver results.

The pandemic has exposed just how vulnerable India's labour force is. An estimated 450 million internal migrant workers make up 92 percent of the labour force in India - with the majority of them hailing from rural India.

The 2019/20 Annual Report was launched in September, highlighting the achievements of the Foundation over the last 12months, and once again an e-version of the report was distributed online to all key stakeholders.

Women's role in India has typically been limited to 'the home' thanks to a patriarchal society and a 'permission culture' which, according to an IDHS survey, sees 79.9% of women having to ask for permission from a male family member to seek medical care, and 58% of women reporting that they needed permission to visit the local kirana (grocery store)

Pearl Tiwari outlined the opportunity for skilling to enhance off-farm livelihoods in the Times of India Blog this month:

All through the COVID-19 pandemic, Ambuja Foundation supported skilling centres (SEDI) have continued to equip rural youth with vocational skills, using the online medium.

Ramesh and Nitu, both ex-trainees of SEDI Rajasthan have been conferred with the Skill Ambassador Award and the Skill Icon award, respectively.

Anagha Mahajani - GM, Program Research & Monitoring at Ambuja Foundation has over 25 years' experience in the development sector and is a qualified management and research practitioner with publications to her credit.

Through a specially constituted Placement Preparedness Team , the SEDI cluster in Rajasthan has placed 500 of its former trainees with the mantra "SEDI Buildings are closed but SEDIs are not"

While the number of Covid 19 cases in India is on an upward trend, the number of missed opportunities for the youth is also on a rise; especially with the number of educational hours being lost owing to the lockdown.

The rural economy is overdependent on agriculture employing over 60% of the total populace yet contributing to under 17% to GDP.