"I belong to a family of farmers. We grow rice, cabbage and tomato. But ours is a small farm." Surya Mani Das introduces himself by talking about his family. After a few minutes, we realise that he is from Agiriya village which is in Kendujhar district of Odisha. Like many youths in his village and also in the district, he dreams to shift from the traditional family occupation of agriculture to a job delivering stable income. We are at Pratham Institute's vocational training centre at Cuttack where students get trained in the electrical vertical.
Kendujhar district is one of the 250 most backward districts of the country. As a consequence, a large population here belong to the agriculture sector. Many of them work on the farms, or they work as unorganised labour elsewhere. Many families in the district live with no steady income, and their finances fluctuate as per the fluctuations in agriculture. Surya studied till 10th grade and felt that he should change the way of living, and it brought him to the centre at Cuttack.
"My parents liked the idea. They felt that I should work and earn additional income as I have studied till 10th grade." He is the first generation school-goer from his family that has till now spent life earning income from agriculture. "They have hopes from me", he says. Besides this, Surya says his village needs electricians. Owing to a lack of industrial activity, there is no availability of skilled labour in his village that will maintain the electricity supply of the village. "If there is a problem in the supply of electricity or there is an interruption, we do not have enough people who are trained to solve it. I want to change this situation", he says.
Surya came to Cuttack with an intention to solve this problem and earn money. "I did not know much about this course till I came here", he admits. "But I thought I should give it a try." Surya happily adjusted to the course, made new friends and is now keen to enter the job market. "I am part of a Whatsapp group that has previous students from this centre who share photos of different cities where they are working. As Pune has the best reviews, I want to work there", he says. "But..", he begins, " Mumbai will also do." He then confesses that he wants to work in Mumbai because of his love for Salman Khan and Bollywood movies. "My favourite movie is Hum Aap Ke Hain Kaun as it shows a family", he says.
As we leave, we ask him what are his plans when he gets his first salary. "I will undertake house repairs, and I will also start saving money as I have to buy a smartphone", he says with a smile.
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