Day 4- Aajeevika Bureau (STEP Academy)

We began day 3 with a 6-hour long bus ride towards the more rural Udaipur Rajastan from the urban city of Ahmedabad. Some of us took the long bus ride as an opportunity to bond with one another by playing games such as Indian Poker. One of the things we noticed upon entering Rajasthan was that the traffic was visibly lower and the area was much less developed. It was more laid back and we had the opportunity to appreciate the countryside views, which was significantly different from the city life in Ahmedabad and in Singapore.

Upon arriving at STEP Academy, we were presently surprised to see familiar faces, such as our very own master, Prof. Adeline Seow, and the CEO of Aajeevika Bureau (AB), Rajiv Khandelwal – Co-Founder of AB who had participated as an academic visitor back at CAPT. STEP Academy arranged a welcome performance for us characterised with drums bells and singing. The Academy at Rajasthan is one of the a centre that trains youth from the migant communities who for various reasons were unable to complete formal education. Similar to SEWA, STEP empowers these migrant youths by teaching skills such as car-servicing, construction, computer skills and life skills. The branding of Aajeevika Bureau and STEP on the certificates attained by these participants serve as a proof of merit to future employers of the skills these trainees attained through the Academy.

According to The Work of NGOs in India - SHGs and Women’s Empowerment written by Patrick Kilby, to understand empowerment, we must first look at disempowerment. Our visit to STEP Academy demonstrated how youth may slip through the cracks of society and face difficulties in employment if not for such training provided by STEP Academy. We also had an opportunity to do some handicraft work prepared specially by the trainees. As we did the activities, we also interacted with the migrant youth to find out more about their lives and the struggles they had gone through. We also had two groups that presented at STEP Academy on the topics of migration in Singapore as well as the non-governmental organisations that wotk with the migrant communities.

After STEP Academy, we checked into a Hotel which has been lined by the beautiful lake Pichola, which only grew more beautiful by the morning. For dinner, we were allowed to explore the area and pick our own locations to eat, leaving our stomachs and hearts full.