Thaindian News

Jammu, Sep 25 (IANS) The army has registered, trained and guided more than 5,000 people in the Jammu region in the past year to get employment under Operation Sadbhavana , an officer said.

More than a 100 have gone on to get jobs and many others have gone for self-employment.

Brigadier J.S. Cheema of 16 Corps told IANS, “We keep adding new features to Operation Sadbhavna and this Youth Employment and Guidance Node is an innovation that has helped large number of youth in remote and terrorist infested areas of the region.”

The army embarked on Youth Employment and Guidance Node (YEGN) over a year ago under Operation Sadhbhavna, which started for “socio-economic development of the state that suffered devastation due to terrorism”.

The aim of YEGN is to provide platform with material support to youngsters and help them “take informed decision on their future”.

“Our focus is self-employment, though we give counseling, information, study material, assistance in filling up forms, providing syllabi and guidance for interviews for various jobs that come up from time to time,” the officer said.

Besides this, the army gives training both for physical and written tests for recruitment in Army, police and other security forces.

According to Cheema, “Over 50 youth trained in these camps have got jobs in the state police and more than 300 have cleared their physicals for army recruitment and their written results are awaited.”

For self-employment, training is given in welding, painting, hairdressing, computers, embroidery, knitting, stitching and more.

“Over 100 ladies took training in embroidery, knitting and stitching,” he said. “Though it was difficult bringing out ladies from remote mountainous areas as they are shy and hesitant, many have started their own units now.”

He added, “We also give driving training. We have tie up with civil authorities and got them learners driving license.”

Javaid Hussain, resident of the remote area of Mahore, around 200 km north of Jammu, got employment as a computer operator in the Prime Minister’s Grameen Sadak Yojna office.

He told IANS over the phone, “I am thankful to the army for training me. Such training was not possible in this remote area of the state.”

Riaz Ali Chohan of Gool works as a security guard in a company in Jammu. Expressing gratitude, said, “Had I not got this training from the army I would be sulking in my village.”