In one of the largest urbanised slums, Kirari, in North-West Delhi, a silent revolution is taking place among young boys. Twenty-two young men have been selected for a two-year training-cum-stipend programme in Maruti Suzuki, Gurgaon, and nine are joining the Indian Army. More so, over 130 young men are waiting to join top-level private companies in Pune, Chennai, Bengaluru and other parts of the country.
Fighting demons of drug abuse and gambling that is spreading like an endemic amidst the youth of the area, about 500 young men, from the underbelly of the national Capital, are training hard to join these notable private sector companies, the Indian Army and the paramilitary forces for the last year.
“I was appalled by the conditions here. People living in Kirari, especially the youth, had stopped dreaming. There was an atmosphere of hopelessness and despair. It is in these circumstances, that we rallied young Congress workers and started collecting resumes of young men between the age of 18 to 25. We then started contacting and requesting well-known business houses and other agencies to visit Kirari and tap its potential. It was a great feeling of achievement, when out of 147 men, who appeared for the Maruti Suzuki examination, 22 cleared it,” said Kanth.
Kirari Congress leader Pratyush Kanth said, Kirari volunteers have started a ‘training programme’ for young men and women to apply for the Indian Army and other para-military forces, in all the four municipal wards of the area. “We have a large number of retired people from the Army and the Police services living in Kirari. These volunteers and a Congress worker Jeetu Fauji are training over 500 kids to join the forces. Several retired school teachers are also helping these boys to prepare for their written tests,” said Kanth.
The success of this initiative is that now in all these resettlement colonies of Kirari, there are at least some ‘role models’ who are idolised and seen as a success stories by other young men of the area. “Earlier, criminals were seen as heroes by the youth. And young boys could forever be seen having gang wars on the streets. Alcoholism, drug abuse, gambling, satta clashes and eve teasing was what kept these boys occupied. There was a need to create exemplar role-models from amongst them and to channelise their energy in the right direction. I could not afford to be a stereotype politician as it required some out of the box thinking. Hence, the Congress office acted like an employment agency to motivate young job-seekers. We are working on such programs for women now, but it will take a year before the results start showing,” said Kanth.
More than 95 per cent people living in Kirari are migrants and most of them are employed as daily wagers. Unfortunately, the area has no government hospitals, no police stations, very few Government schools, no community centres, no street lights, no public toilets, no sewage system, bad roads, no CCTV cameras and hardly any clean drinking water.