Prelude
India has become the most populous country in the world, housing almost 1/5th of the world’s population. While the high population has its complexity, it has also given India the advantage of being the youngest country with an average working age group of 28.4 yrs. It is estimated that by the year 2030, 69% of the Indian population (about 1.04 billion people) will fall into this active working group. This is India’s demographic dividend!
India has already overtaken its colonial masters to become the 5th largest economy. A report by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) revealed that a meagre 3% of India’s workforce consists of formally skilled workers, against 24% in China. India therefore must concentrate on educating the masses and on higher skill development programs. Indian women form a significant percentage of its young labour force. While women contribute 40% to China’s GDP, it’s just 17% in India’s case. Thus, the need of the hour is ‘Education and Skill development’ with special emphasis on women’s entrepreneurship.
Introduction
With an average age of 28 years, India is the youngest country in the world. At 1.4 billion people, it houses about 18% of the world’s population. The country has already overtaken its past colonial masters to claim the 5th largest economy slot. A report by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) revealed that a meagre 3% of India’s workforce consists of formally skilled workers, against 24% in China. Although Indian women form a significant percentage of its youth, however, their contribution to India’s GDP is just 17% as against 40% in the case of Chinese women. Thus, the need of the hour is ‘Education and Skill development’ with special emphasis on women entrepreneurship.
‘Covid Pandemic’ starting in March 2020, led to the loss of regular income for a large section of society, specially those in the unorganised sector. Lack of livelihood displaced millions of families & forced them to return to native villages, denying education to their children in the process. Students of senior secondary classes were the worst affected.
An initiative called SMK Defence Academy was thus born in April 2020. The purpose was to provide free Online coaching for 11th & 12th classes along with coaching for the National Defence Academy entrance exam. Once the Covid threat receded & life returned to near normal by the year 2022, it was time for SMK Institute to shift from being exclusively an online coaching platform to include an ‘in-person’ coaching to its curriculum. The loss of regular jobs by marginalised workers for the last 30 odd months, had adversely affected their vocational skills &a large number of them(age bracket of 20-22 years), hadn’t even gotten an opportunity to develop or hone their vocational skills. A re-evaluation of the prevailing adverse socio-economic environment at that time by SMK Institute, revealed an urgent requirement to restore the livelihood of many families, as their sole bread earners had been lost to Covid. Imparting vocational skills to such families was now identified as the ‘Priority Area’. SHREE MAA CARE FOUNDATION was thus incorporated on 24th Aug 2022, under Section 8 of the Companies Act, 2013, for the purpose.
