Addressing the unemployment issue continues to be a daunting task for development thinkers and policy makers. The unemployment rate for India had touched 9.4% in 2009-10, according to the first-ever household-level national employment survey conducted by the Labor Bureau, Government of India. 40 million people are still unemployed in the country and more employment opportunities are required for balancing the condition. As per the 66th round of the NSSO survey, the growth in jobs from 2004-05 to 2009-10 has been practically stagnant (only about a million new jobs created in five years).

Skill development initiatives can play an effective role in combating unemployment to an appreciable extent. Once the unemployed youths are equipped with appropriate skills, they can effectively contribute to the economic growth and social development of an economy. At present the capacity of skill development in India is around 3.1 million persons per year. The 11th Five Year Plan envisions an increase in that capacity to 15 million annually. India has set a target of creating 500 million skilled workers by 2022. Thus, there is a need for increasing capacity and capability of skill development programs.*

Bandhan identifies skill development for employability as an important strategy in the fight against unemployment. Bandhan is trying to address the needs of huge unemployed population by providing appropriate skills in order to make them employable and help them secure decent work.

Against this backdrop, Bandhan launched the Employing the Unemployed Program (EUP) in the year 2009 to integrate skill development into unemployment mitigation programs.

* National Skill Development Policy, March 2009

This program has been designed to address the following objectives.

• To develop a skilled workforce relevant to current and emerging employment market needs
• To identify unemployed youths with different profiles and needs and channelize them into appropriate skill development programs
• To ensure equal access to skill development for the underprivileged section
• To guide and link the trained youths to secured and decent job opportunities after the successful completion of the course

Bandhan has set up its own vocational centers in different pockets of West Bengal. These function like training institutes and are named 'Bandhan Learning Center'. Bandhan has four such centers located in Bally, Barasat, Garia and Behala which provide training on different domains namely Customer Relation and Sales(CRS) , Hospitality, Information Technology Enabled Services (ITES), Business Process Outsourcing(BPO), Computerized Accounting, Refrigerator and Air Conditioner repair , interior designing and similar fields in order to enhance the skill of young people and make them employable.

Classes are held 6 days a week in two shifts. The first session commences from 9 and continues till 1 pm while the second half begins at 2 pm and finishes at 6 pm. Bandhan has its own resourceful faculty for each discipline imparting dedicated service towards ensuring job assistance. Each batch consists of not more than 25 students. Special care is ensured for each candidate in terms of grooming, personality development, attitude building, facing interview etc. Guest lectures by industry experts are also facilitated sometimes. This 2 month course has been designed in such a way that the students are given both theoretical as well as practical insights.

After adequate training, the youth either generate self-employment or find themselves reasonable employment with reputed names like KFC, Pantaloons, Café Coffee Day, Mainland China, Godrej, McDonald's, Subway, Nokia, Big Bazaar, Spring club and others.

Once the students are successfully placed, EUP team does a 6 month follow up with them to track their working experience.

Performance of the employing the unemployed program has been detailed below. These data are all as of August , 2017.

No Particulars Total 1 States 4 2 Districts 24 3 Villages 102 4 Families covered 13,993 5 Staff 57

No Address 6 months Course 60 days Course Contact no 1 Barasat BSDC :Mouza-Prasadpur,Barasat Dackbanglo more (Opposite City Mall),P.S- Barasat,Dist-24 Pgs(N), Pin-700 124. Guest Relation Executive(Age-18 to 28),Retail(Age-18 to 30),BPO(Age-18 to 35)In all domain minimum qualification required Graduation.Refrigeration and AC machine Repairing(Age-18 to 35 age),need minimum H.S passout. NA 98830 07743 2 Chandannagar BSDC: Khalisani, Garerdhar, Near-1no Platform of Chandannagar Station, Hooghly Guest Relation Executive(Age-18 to 28),Marketing(Age-18 to 35),Computer Accounting(Age-18 to 35)In all domain minimum qualification required Graduation. NA 98301 12534 3 Bally BSDC: Vill-Narth Ghosh Para, (Opposite Bally Halt Station), P.S-Bally, Dist-Howrah, Pin-711 227 Refrigeration and AC machine Repairing(Age-18 to 35)Computer Hardware and Networking(Age-18 to 35)(Qualification Need in two domains-Minimum-H.S pass out),BPO(Age-18 to 35),Retail(Age-18 to 30),need qualification in two domains minimum Graduation. NA 90077 66842 4 Behala BSDC: 4, Becharam Chatterjee Road, (Near Vidyasagar Hospital), P.S-Parnasree, Kol-700 034 Hardware and Networking(Age-18-Qualification Need Minimum-H.S pass out),Guest Relation Executive(Age-18 to 28),BPO(Age-18 to 35)these two domains need minimum Graduation. NA 90511 29773 5 Garia BSDC: P-4, Velly Park, (Opposite Mahua Cinema Hall), Gari-Sreerampur Road, Near-Nazrul Metro, P.S-Patuli, Dist-24 Pgs(S), Pin-700 084. Guest Relation(Age-18 to 28),Marketing(Age-18 to 35),BPO(Age-18 to 35)In all domain minimum qualification required Graduation.Refrigeration and AC machine Repairing(Age-18 to 35 age),need minimum H.S passout. NA 90880 22025 6 Siliguri BSDC: Datta Bhawan, Loknath Bal Sarani, Pardhan Nagar, P.S-Pardhan Nagar, Siliguri,Pin-734003. Guest Relation(Age-18 to 28),Marketing(Age-18 to 35),Computer Accounting(Age-18 to 35)In all domain minimum qualification required Graduation. NA 98000 69697 7 Patna BSDC: Narth Sk Puri, House No-8,Kasturbapath, Boring Road,Patna-13, (Near Jamuna Apertment).Phone-8409382778. NA Retail(Age-18 to 28,Qualification need minimum-H.S pass out),Refrigeration and AC machine Repairing(Age-18 to 35,Qualification need minimum-class-X pass out),Hospitality(Age-18 to 26,Qualification need minimum-X pass out) 85818 38165 8 Ranaghat BSDC: 5GNPC Road, Near Police Phari, Nadia-741201. Marketing(Age-18 to 35),Food Production(Age-18 to 30),BPO(Age-18 to 35)In all domain minimum qualification required Graduation.Refrigeration and AC machine Repairing(Age-18 to 35 age),need minimum H.S passout. NA 94338 12046 9 Burdwaman BSDC: 8 No Mehedi Bagan, GT Road, Burdwan, P.S-Burdwan Sadar-713101. Refrigeration and AC machine Repairing(Age-18 to 35 and Qualification need-minimum H.S) and Marketing(Age-18 to 35,qualification need -minimum Graduation)Guest Relation Executive(Age-18 to 28) NA 83348 11448 10 Cuttack BSDC: Dolmundai,Cuttack.Pin-753001(Badambari,near KFC Restaurant) NA Retail(Age-18 to 28,Qualification need minimum-H. S pass out),Refrigeration and AC machine Repairing(Age-18 to 35,Qualification need minimum-class-X pass out),Hospitality(Age-18 to 26,Qualification need minimum-X pass out) 84570 23155 11 Indore BSDC:Prakash Chandra Gondi House.149 Bhagyashree Colony.P.S and P.O:Vijaynagar.Dist:Indore.Pin-452010. NA BPO(Age-18 to 35,Qualification need minimum-H. S pass out) 99261 62648

Note:

1. The minimum batch size of each domain is 20 no of candidates.
2. NA - Not applicable the domains/courses on that particular center.