Bank job training for youths in Red hubs

NEW DELHI: The National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) plans to train youth from Naxal-hit areas in basic accounting skills. The initiative is aimed at helping the youth find jobs with local banks, where operations often take a hit as few regular employees are willing to be posted in Red zones due to safety concerns.

 The NSDC, sources in the government told TOI, is working on a six-month training capsule for educated youth in Left-wing extremism-hit zones keen on employment in the banking sector. It will seek to impart coaching in basic computing skills, an aptitude that bank recruitment tests look for in lower clerical staff.

However, the NSDC course may, at best, only prepare the youth in Naxal-hit districts to take the common written examination for recruitment in banks. Direct placement is ruled out unless the government agrees to relax the recruitment norms exclusively for the Red zones.

Incidentally, the NSDC initiative comes even as the department of financial services has been persuading the Indian Banks Association (IBA) to arrange special coaching for youth in theatres of insurgency, including Jammu & Kashmir and Naxal-hit areas, to help them clear the written examination.

Apart from creating skilled job opportunities for local Naxal youth and contributing to the state's effort to wean them away from potential recruitment by the Maoists, the initiative by NSDC and IBA is expected to help the financial services' rural outreach plans. Most banks find it difficult to operate branches in insurgency-prone areas as few employees are willing to join here, fearing for their safety. In fact, they often prefer to resign than be posted in these areas.

Staffing these "threat-prone" branches with local youth is possibly seen by the government agencies as the most practical way of solving the short-staffing problem faced by banks operating in troubled zones.

Penetration of banking facilities in Naxal-hit areas, a senior government official said, would also help reach the benefits of entitlement programmes like MNREGA to local tribals, since funds for these schemes are routed through either public-sector banks or post offices.

Young boys and girls in Naxal-hit areas often find it difficult to clear written exams for recruitment not only into the banking sector but also the central paramilitary forces. Even though rules allow CRPF to recruit up to 20% from areas where it is deployed, the actual numbers hired are hardly encouraging.given that most locals find it difficult to match the standards of the all-India written exam.

http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-11-19/india/35204518_1_naxal-hit-areas-nsdc-indian-banks-association

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