In Punjab hinterland, seed of startups is sown

Sarbjit Dhaliwal

The high rate of unemployment in rural areas is driving the youth astray. Except agriculture, there is nothing that occupies them, forcing the youth to while away time in pursuits that could be detrimental to health, like drug addiction, or society, in the form of crime. One man hopes to change this. With a mission to turn rural youth into job providers from job seekers, Dr Raghbir Singh Basi has set up the Entrepreneurship Centre, in collaboration with Sri Guru Gobind Singh Khalsa College, Mahilpur, in Hoshiarpur district. The idea is to develop entrepreneurial skills among the youth so they can be on their own and learn to take calculated risks.
Dr Basi wants to give back to society. And what better way than to offer job skills to its youth. Concerned at the non-availability of government jobs, he believes youths are falling prey to various ills like addiction. “The right course is to provide them with enough skills to enable them to earn their livelihood without depending on anyone,” he says.
He has also roped in his family to run the centre effectively. His siblings have set up the Babuji Hari Singh Basi Memorial Trust, Kharaudi, in memory of their father. The trust has signed an MoU with Jagg Singh, the college principal, who has promised to provide the centre with infrastructure, faculty and other help. The trust would give Rs 50 lakh to the centre, of which the first instalment of Rs 5 lakh for startup expenses has been released.
Dearth of money will not come in the way of the cause, says Dr Basi. If required, his family would provide more funds. “We just wish to see the rural youth moving ahead in life,” he says, adding, “the objective of the centre, which will run three 10-week batches with about 35 students, is to provide long, intensive classroom-cum-experimental workshop to prepare them to undertake new ventures and enterprises.”
The trainees would be guided to identify potential business opportunities and access available sources of information and assistance in demographic, finance, marketing, advertising and the like. Entrepreneurship skills can help them start their own repair workshops as there is a large presence of vehicles in the rural areas. They can also set up electronics repair shops, for which there is a big market. Or they can become service providers, he says.
“Apart from providing hands-on training, we want to inspire them to earn money by engaging themselves in self-promoted ventures. We want to develop in them the dignity of labour. When people migrate to other countries from Punjab, they take up all kinds of jobs,” says Dr Basi. An expert in development economics, Dr Basi has many achievements to his credit. He taught at New York University and Kent University after pursuing a master’s degree in public administration from Harvard and PhD from Cornell University. He has also served at eminent positions such as a consultant to the Planning Commission of India in 1963 and senior economic adviser to the Government of Saudi Arabia from 1967 to 1970.
The coming together of like-minded people has made all the difference. “I am committed to turning the college into a rural hub for productive activities aimed at providing skills to the youth to earn money for a decent living,” says Jagg Singh. “Rural youth have tremendous potential, but they need guidance and training, which the centre will provide.”
Dr Basi plans to set up more such centres with the help of his associates in Canada and other countries. Trainees would be identified in rural areas. His commitment to society is not limited to this project. He was the brain behind the Village Life Improvement Programme (of which he is chairman) that planned the integrated development of various villages by collecting donations from NRIs and also seeking some funds from the Punjab Government. The development project began from his native Kharudi village with the help of his NRI associates.
Dr Basi also worked as a member of the Gian Sewa Trust, the objective of which was to improve the standard of education to enable the youth to secure good jobs. What worries Dr Basi is that the rural areas have been left far behind. “My entire energy,” he says, “is focused in bringing about an economic turnaround in these areas.”