Jaya, a 19-year-old girl who resides in Sita Ram Bazar (Chandni Chowk) and comes from a marginalized community, has six members in her family and her parents are physically challenged. Thus, there was a huge responsibility on her shoulders to support her family. After a recommendation from her friend, Jaya joined the Lighthouse Skill Centre located at the Turkman Gate area of Matia Mahal in Delhi. She got enrolled in an executive skill course, which is imparted at the centre, worked on her skills and now she is working as a sales executive at Zudio. Her monthly remuneration is about 21,000 rupees and it is kind of good enough to support her family.
Jaya is not the only one who benefited from the lighthouse skill center. There are many others like her.
A few days back, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal inaugurated the lighthouse skill centre in the Matia Mahal area, in the presence of Deputy Mayor of Delhi Aaley Mohammad Iqbal. According to Atishi Singh, Education Minister of Delhi, this lighthouse project in the Matia Mahal area is the dream project of the deputy mayor.
Lighthouse Skill Centre is a sustainable livelihood program for urban disadvantaged youth (18-30 years) and it provides a platform and supports the individual in discovering their path and taking the next step towards fulfilling their potential. The lighthouse model has the target to reach a minimum of 25% of total households in each slum community to be enrolled. After going through the foundational course of spoken English and digital empowerment, counselling for the individual is held to identify his/her potential. This is followed by enrolling them in vocational skill training which includes courses of assistant beauty therapist, office executive, digital marketing, bakery/kitchen, account executive among others. The centre also helps them to build their CV and to get placement.
Vijay Kumar, in-charge of the Lighthouse skill centre at Matia Mahal, says “Most of the students enrolled here are from nearby places and the courses are free of cost. As of now, about 200 students are enrolled here in various courses and the best thing is that the ratio of girls and boys in this center is 70:30 which is a good example of women empowerment.” This centre was running since April on a pilot project and a few days back it got inaugurated as a full-fledged center, Kumar said.
Anjum Ara, a teacher who teaches digital empowerment at the centre, said that the women who are enrolled there feels that those classes have opened the outside world for them and will make them financially independent.
“We have got one lady in our center whose husband has left her and now she is residing with her mother. She joined this center, learnt the skills of tailoring and stitching, and now she is looking to open her shop”, said Kamal Sharma, a teacher at the lighthouse skill centre. She added that the classroom requires more space to accommodate the students.
The students, who have been enrolled in this skill center, have observed drastic changes in their confidence level whether it comes to speaking English or learning about the courses. Arbia Arafeen, who lost both of her parents when she was just four-year-old and lives nearby to the skill centre, says that her personality has completely changed after joining the skill center and now she can put her words in front of the world in a better way. Sajda Khan (21), another student at the skill centre who has been enrolled for beautification course, said that she wants to open her own saloon after completing her course and support her family.
However, there are a few suggestions received from the other students and staffs. The students have put forward an idea to start more courses like graphics designing, software learning, training for the role of air hostess among others, so that more students can be enrolled. The staffs have suggested that a library on the first floor should be opened so that the students can access books, magazines, newspapers, novels and other study materials.
Speaking to The New Indian Express on upcoming plans for the lighthouse skill center, Deputy Mayor Aaley Mohammad Iqbal said, “Under the leadership of Arvind Kejriwal, our plan is to open these skill centers in each and every constituency of Delhi, so that every individual from the marginalized section can have their right to earn livelihood and support their family.”
Currently, there are three lighthouse skill centres in Delhi. One each in Kalkaji, Malkaganj and the newly inaugurated one in Matia Mahal. One more lighthouse skill center is under construction in Patparganj. These lighthouse skill centres are aimed to provide education along with the necessary skills so that getting employment becomes easy.