These days every single person is known with the word-computer. We can find computers at everywhere around us. In fact modern world will be incomplete without computers and their applications. Shopping, banking, traveling, stocking, literature, entertainment, public sector, private sector, almost everywhere computers are playing their roles efficiently. Therefore, the knowledge of computers has become indispensible for all educated youth in the present day to secure a job, whether they are hailing from urban or rural.

Need for Training:

There are large numbers of girls, who have studied 10th or 12th standard in the backward and neglected villages in the rural parts of Tiruvallur Dt. All of them belong to poor families. Their parents are mostly agricultural laborers, coolies, fishermen, hawkers, vendors and domestic servants earning very small wages and are living below poverty line. So, Sri Ramakrishna Math, Chennai helps them to acquire some vocational training so as to enable them to earn and look after their families. In the year 2005-06 the Math ran 4 computer centres exclusively for giving computer training to the educated rural girls in the following villages in Tiruvallur Dt.

In these computer centres, training was given to thcee poor girls with 10th standard qualification belonging to those villages and also other nearby villages.

More computer training centers:

The Lions Club of Nungambakkam, after seeing progress in the above 4 computer centers, donated 30 computers with necessary accessories to the Math for conducting similar training programmes in 10 more villages in Tiruvallur Dt. for the benefit of the educated unemployed rural girls. Our volunteers visited various backward villages to verify the economic conditions of the families prevailed therein and from the data furnished by them we picked up the following 10 villages in the rural part of Tiruvallur Dt. to open computer centers:

These 10 centers are now functioning and in each center, 20 girls from the villages concerned and from surrounding villages are undergoing computer training. The computer centers are now housed either in Panchayat Board buildings or in the High Schools premises with the consent of the Panchayat Board President or the Headmaster of the school. Each center is having an Instructor. Besides this, two persons have been employed for overall supervision.

Training and Placement:

In every center we have arranged to give training to 20 poor girls for a period of 4 to 6 months. On completion of this period and after ascertaining the performance, these girls are placed in various companies in Chennai as Data Entry Operators on an initial pay of not less than Rs. 1800/- per month. More than 400 girls who underwent this training have obtained placements with the help of Math in various offices in Chennai city so far with an initial salary of Rs. 1800/- to Rs. 2500/- per month.

Every year we have planned to give training to about 840 girls in these 14 computer centers and get them placements in Software Companies as there is a great demand for such jobs. All these girls hail from rural areas in Tiruvallur Dt. belonging to poor families. If they start earning, their families will be benefited to a large extent. Otherwise they will remain as daily wage earners for the rest of their life.

For donation towards free computer centers please click here

      Sri Ramakrishna Math, with assistance from Direct-Relief International and GlaxoSmithKline runs a One Year Nurse Assistant Training programme. The programme was started in the year 2004 following the Indian Ocean Tsunami. In the immediate aftermath of the tsunami, Sri Ramakrishna Math distributed medicines, food, and clothing to the affected population and supported construction of houses and community centers to replace those that had been destroyed. The coastal towns throughout Tamil Nadu sustained significant damage during the 2004 tsunami with an estimated 900,000 people affected.

     A need was felt to empower the local young women of the Tsunami affected districts. The training of local young women into nursing assistants provides a meaningful opportunity for them to contribute to their communities and improve their livelihoods. The girls chosen to take the course are selected from very poor agricultural and fishing villages. Most of the girls have already completed their higher secondary education, but due to family financial restrictions have been unable to continue their education further. The course gives the girls an opportunity to receive higher education, the first generation in many families to receive such a gift, and qualifies them for employment outside the traditional industries of fishing and agriculture.    

So far, 1200 nurses have graduated in the last four years and currently 300 girl students are undergoing training in various Nursing Training Institutions in Chennai. The graduates have a 100 percent employment rate. The success of this training program can be clearly seen through the high demand for those who have completed the course. Over 20 local hospitals have employed the nurse assistants immediately upon graduation,allowing the girls to earn a good wage, improve their economic status, and take part in the delivery of good quality healthcare services.

Year of start of the project: 2002

Duration of the course: one year

Total number of nursing assistants trained till 2010: 1320

Job placement rate: 100%

Expenditure incurred to train one batch of 30 nurse assistants and arrange for employment: Rs. 3.00 lakh

For Donation towards Nurse Assistant Training Programme Please click here

    The Math is running Free Tuition Centres for the benefit of poor and downtrodden students studying in Std. X & XII in Government Schools in the rural areas of Tiruvallur District. The students are motivated to perform well by intensive coaching. In most deserving cases, the Math meets the expense for Higher Education, besides issuing books from Math’s Book Bank. The Teacher employed for this purpose visits the villages regularly. 

    One month prior to the commencement of Govt. Examination, special coaching classes are conducted daily from 6 am to 10 pm for boys and upto 6 pm for girls. The students are provided with breakfast, lunch, night tiffin/meals (at least for 30 days), to enable them to concentrate on studies. This arrangement is in addition to the regular tuition classes conducted throughout the year. 

    The project was started in the year 1991. So far about 10,000 students of X Std. and 5000 students of XII Std. have benefitted from this scheme. The percentage of pass in X Std. and XII Std. in the year 1991 was only 35% but in 2010, the percentage of pass has improved to over 88%. 

    Presently the Centres are run at two schools in the Mylapore area and in the rural areas at Red Hills, Sholavaram, Kavarapettai, Velliyur, Ponneri and Pazhaverkadu (Fishermen area). There is an ever growing demand to set up more such Centres. Currently there are totally 1500 students availing the services of the Free Tuition Centres. These students also actively participate in the service-oriented activities of the Math.

For Donation towards Free Tuition centers please click here and select 'Rural - Free Tuition Centers for rural students' in Category