Career choices confound the best of students. Children living in child-care institutions may be more disadvantaged owing to their limited exposure and social background. The future, for them, remains a question mark more often than not.
Looking beyond providing food and schooling to ensure livelihood opportunities for them once they move out of the homes, the District Child Protection Unit (DCPU) under the Women and Child Development Department has piloted Amrita Kiranam for the children living in 88 child care institutions as per the juvenile justice Act in the district.
Officials of the District Child Protection Unit say that for the large part, the children in homes, often hailing from coastal or tribal settlements and with parents working in the unorganised sector, may not be aware of career opportunities other than the mainstream ones. This destines them to a lifetime working as casual labourers, and lacking any job security.
To address this hurdle, the DCPU has launched the Amrita Kiranam project to introduce such children to diverse career and livelihood opportunities.
Class 12 students
In the first phase, Amrita Kiranam is targeting 81 Class 12 students living in children’s homes. Preliminary data on these students, such as their social background and the sectors they are interested in to take up employment, have been collected. Next, career guidance sessions have been launched for them in association with the Career Guidance and Adult Counselling Cell of the higher secondary wing in the State.
Two sessions led by higher secondary Souhruda Club trainers Ratheesh Nirala and Shihab A. on goal setting and short-term and long-term courses have been held to understand the students’ interests and present various opportunities to them, be it paramedical courses or one-year technical courses with certification that can land them jobs without delay.
On the cards is training for students with the support of various organisations after entering into agreements with them.
The response from the students has been very good though the sessions have been held online in the wake of COVID-19, say the DCPU officials. The pandemic, they say, has had an impact on their plans for following up on students right from Class 10, resulting in limiting career guidance to Class 12 students for the time being.
Amrita Kiranam, they say, will equip students to make sound career choices rather than fall back on jobs in the unorganised sector once they attain the age of 18 and move out of the portal of child care institutions. Once the pandemic blows over, the plan is to transform Amrita Kiranam into a full-fledged project.
