Lakhs of youth are entering the job market every year after completing their school/collegiate
education. Non-availability of corresponding employment opportunities in the organised
as well as unorganised sector has increased unemployment. The entry of automation
and mechanization in every sphere of commerce and administration due to the advent
of science and technology has further accentuated the problem.
On the rural side, the employment potential in agricultural economy also appears
to have reached a saturation level leading to large scale migration of manpower
from rural areas to urban areas adding woes and pressure to already over strained
civic infrastructure. Millions of unemployed youth particularly from rural and semi-urban
background who could not access higher professional education but oriented towards
white collar jobs are driven to despair for not finding a job.
Of late, these distressed youth are attracted towards antisocial activities for
their livelihood. This tremendous waste of human resources and mismatch of potentiality
with productive deployment has baffled the planners and administrators. The situation
calls for urgent steps to provide increased employment opportunity in the rural
and semi- urban areas itself to check the shifting of resources resulting in improved
economic status. All these clearly indicate the need for promoting self-employment
entrepreneurial ventures among the unemployed youth and women
Of late, Government and Non Government agencies have taken certain initiatives and
implementing many schemes to promote micro enterprises. However, the efforts seem
to be inadequate against the gigantic unemployment problem. An innovative initiative
was taken way back in the year 1982 jointly by Sri Dharmasthala Manjunatheshwara
Educational Trust, Syndicate Bank,Canara Bank to motivate unemployed youth to take
up self-employment as an alternative career.
The unique experiment of building confidence of the youth by developing skill and
positive attitude among them through dedicated training was found effective. The
model has proved very successful in building the morale of the youth and empowering
them to set up self-employment ventures in their own places. The project reported
a success rate of 66 per cent RUDSETI model was appreciated by Government of India,
State Governments, SIDBI, and NABARD. Replication of this model was recommended
to tackle the unemployment problem successfully and developing entrepreneurship.