المنتدى العالمي المعني بالأمن الغذائي والتغذية

Dear Jacqueline

I have submitted the file with a synopsis of the model that was mentioned in my earlier post.

In my view, the youth in India are either formally educated in a system that aims at university degrees which  trains you for office or corporate jobs. The ones who do not take formal college education especially after class 10th i.e. at 15 years of age, usually drop out of the education system completely. They usually take up some sort of vocational training from ITIs. However only few of them find employment in their respective fields and migrate to cities.

In a separate study done on employability of shrimp farming industry in India, we have some interesting findings. The labour employed in this industry all over the country,  comes from only a particular region of India. The skills necessary for shrimp farming are passed down from generation to generation in this region. As there is a lack of skilled labour in other parts, the youth from this particular regio are employed. The ones who stay back in villages, and opt for agriculture or allied, usually learn from their experience in field. They are unable to update themselves with new technologies.

Thus we fins a dire need for vocational training in aquaculture. Aquaculture being a relatively new practcie in India when compared to agriculture. Unlike the farming techniques which have been passed down form one generation to another, one needs to learn the husbandary methods for aquaculture. I feel a strong need of vocational training facilities (for 15 to 17 age group) on district level so that the vast resources of tanks and reservoirs are exploited for income gerneration which will also take care of the malnutrition (especially lack of protein) in rural India. The aquaculture does not stop at the production level as there is a scope for preservation and value addition too. Thus there can be a cascading effect leading to more employment generation opportunities.