Over the past two decades, government policy has enabled the short term skills training of youth dropping out of schools leading to employability. The booming apparel industry in India and the requirement for skilled workers has led to an exponential growth of training institutions to meet this need. The process involves mobilization and counselling of youth, engagement with parents and community members, enabling their movement to the training center and onwards, imparting training and assessing competency levels.
In Odisha, a large proportion of youth undertaking the training are from rural and remote regions, largely constituting scheduled castes and tribes. Gram Tarang Employability and Training Services Pvt Ltd (GTET), the incubated social outreach of Centurion University of Technology and Management, Odisha (CUTM) is one of the largest training providers in Odisha and one of the first partners of the National Skill Development Corporation, Government of India. Trained and skilled youth from GTET are employed in the industrial clusters of mainly Tamil Nadu and Karnataka enabled by institutional/ structured migration. This transition of youth causes a paradigm shift in their lives, living and livelihood.
This paper explores the changing identities of tribal youth owing to skilling, employability and gainful employment aided by migration. The paper will also consider the monitoring and support mechanisms, including health, safety and well being, which facilitates a soft landing and adjustment into a different cultural ecosystem.
