The programme, inaugurated yesterday, aims at training 100 women, 50 each from among the civilian population and from the border guarding force, in apparel and textile manufacturing by conducting a vocational programme to generate employment for them in the private sector.
The border force, which is deployed along the frontiers of Pakistan and Bangladesh, has entered into a partnership with the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) to train and subsequently create job opportunities both for the border population and families of the force personnel in the corporate sector.
The Union Home Ministry and the Jammu and Kashmir government are already running a similar programme aimed at providing jobs to 40,000 Kashmiri youths over a five year period.
"The initiative which was inaugurated by the Meghalaya Chief Minister is aimed at bringing the border population into the national mainstream and the thinking is that once the people engaged in criminal activities get employment, we expect that cross-border crime will reduce automatically," BSF Deputy Inspector General and nodal officer of the initiative Vijay Sakhare said.
"The force will earn the goodwill and confidence of locals which will go a long way in ensuring security at the borders," he said.
The first pilot project of the employment-linked vocational training programme was inaugurated in Delhi in April. The BSF Wives Welfare Association is sponsoring the initiative through a loan-based mechanism.
"At the end of vocational training, these women would be given jobs by corporate partners of the NSDC and families would be provided with self-employment opportunities on a sustainable basis so that they can supplement their incomes," the DIG said.
Border Security Force (BSF) will extend this programme to its formations across the country including in Jammu and Kashmir, Rajasthan and Gujarat. The force will bear all the expenses of the training.
