career guidance for the rural

1. CAREER GUIDANCE
SERIES - OPTIONS AND
OPPORTUNITIES FOR
RURAL STUDENTS IN
INDIA1
By :
Prof. (Dr. ) Trilok Kumar Jain
Dean, ISBM
Suresh Gyan Vihar University
Jaipur 302017 Mobile : 9414430763
Jain.tk@gmail.com
1
The views expressed in this article are the personal views of the author. The author is open to criticism and is
willing to proceed further in the direction, but requires support. The likeminded persons are invited to join to work
together to help our country. The author welcomes suggestions / support / ideas from the reader.

2. A person can make a great career with the aid of following tools : -
a. A great vision (future perspective about what a person wants to become)
b. A great learning environment (group of students working together on some
common projects so that they learn from each other and build capabilities)
c. Identifying the skills that can be acquired given certain background and strengths
d. Identifying the skills required by the society
e. Relating the skills to the requirements of the society and moulding those skills
further for the benefit of the society

3. When we talk about career, there are many misnomers in India, which should be
understood. There is a rampant movement to spoil the minds of the youth today with
these ideas : -
a. A mad race for degree rather than building capabilities
b. A mad race for IITs and IIMs rather than encouraging students to learn at
institutions which can give them better connectivity to industries / real life
experiences
c. A mad race to join institutions which offer campus placements rather then
encouraging students to opt for entrepreneurial options.

4. Whenever I talk about career, I ask the students to build capabilities. Traditionally
India has always been a place for building capabilities. If you ever get a chance to read
old stories, you will find that there are mentions that the ancient India always
encouraged building capabilities. People used to send their children to Gurus to acquire
skills. A prince or a princess with 64 skills would be most appreciated. The 64 skills are
as under : - 1) singing, 2) instrumental music, 3) dancing, 4) painting, 5) forehead
adornments, 6) making decorative floral and grain designs on the floor, 7) home and
temple flower arranging, 8) personal grooming, 9) mosaic tiling, 10) bedroom
arrangements, 11)creating music with water, 12) splashing and squirting with water, 13)
secret mantras, 14) making flower garlands, 15) head adornments, 16) dressing, 17)
costume decorations, 18) perfumery, 19) jewelry making, 20) magic and illusions, 21)
ointments for charm and virility, 22) manual dexterity, 23) skills of cooking, eating and
drinking, 24) beverage and dessert preparation, 25) sewing (making and mending
garments), 26) embroidery, 27) playing vina and drum, 28) riddles and rhymes, 29)
poetry games, 30)tongue twisters and difficult recitation, 31) literary recitation, 32)
drama and story telling, 33) verse composition game, 34) furniture caning, 35)******
devices and knowledge of sexual arts, 36) crafting wooden furniture, 37)architecture and
house construction, 38) distinguishing between ordinary and precious stones and
metals, 39) metal-working, 40) gems and mining, 41) gardening and horticulture, 42)
games of wager involving animals, 43) training parrots and mynas to speak, 44)
hairdressing, 45) coding messages, 46) speaking in code, 47) knowledge of foreign
languages and dialects, 48) making flower carriages, 49) spells, charms and omens,
50)making simple mechanical devices, 51) memory training, 52) game of reciting verses
from hearing, 53) decoding messages, 54) the meanings of words, 55) dictionary studies,
56) prosody and rhetoric, 57) impersonation, 58) artful dressing, 59) games of dice, 60)
the game of akarsha (a dice game played on a board), 61) making dolls and toys for
children, 62) personal etiquette and animal training, 63) knowledge of dharmic warfare
and victory, and 64) physical culture.

5. Thus the traditional Indian wisdom always valued skills and capabilities. It is the
present education system (the so called modern education system), which has created a
mad rush for degrees and institutions. How does degree or institution help a person is
beyond understanding. A person takes a degree in mechanical engineering, but doesn’t
know to prepare a machine. A person takes a degree in metallurgy, but doesn’t know
how to convert iron ore to steel. A traditional Indian Lohar or a Sonar is better, as he
understands the skills and capabilities required in metallurgy.
The same story goes with all disciplines. A student acquires degree without acquirising
capabilities. The mad race for degrees is so much damaging that the student wants to
get a degree by hook or crook. There are many agents, who offer them such facilties.
These degree holders are useless persons from the following perspectives : -
a. They have a false ego and they are not willing to execute physical work
b. They have no apetite to learn from practitioners
c. They believe that they have learned everthing and they just need to make money
d. They have no respect for traditional knowledge that India has built over centuries
There are also the coaching institutions, which encourage students to take up
admissions only in IITs and IIMs and which encourage students only for campus
placement. I am not against IITs or IIMs, but I am against this mad race. Why should
campus placements be considered attractive? Why cant we encourage students to
become entrepreneur in his own city or rural area and enable other people to generate
employment? Why shouldn’t we help our students in developing a vision of a small
entrepreneur rather than dreaming for campus placement?
70% of India still lives in villages. There is a continuous effort to uproot this India and
relocate it to metro cities. These initiatives are based on vested interests of large

6. companies, MNCs and real estate companies. But the real challenge is to enable the
youth from rural areas to create entrepreneurial ventures in rural India itself. The real
challenge is to enable the students from villages to acquire skills and capabilities and
work for the development of villages. The real challenges are to present role models in
the form of rural entrepreneurs.
What should a student from village do ?
A student from a village must identify his capabilities, interests and put them in the
context of his own village and identify the skills that if he acquire will be valued in the
village. He must acquire those skills which can enable him to serve his village. If his
village needs a school, he should visualize opening a great school. If his village needs a
tractor repairing centre – he should visualize being a great tractor mechanic and an
automobile engineer with capabilities in understating automobiles for the villages. If his
village needs a veterinary doctor, he should visualize being a great veterinary doctor. If
his village needs a doctor, he should visualize himself as a doctor.

7. I will be very happy if a student joins IIT or IIM, but I will be more happy, if a student
from a village joins nearby ITI and learns skills which can be used in his own village /
town and builds capabilities which can enable him to become an entrepreneur (rather
then dreaming for a campus placement drive by an MNC). I will be more happy if the
students from villages are given better exposure about how they can transform their
villages.

8. There is a need to give better exposure to youth of villages through ICT and modern
mass media. This can be done through following : -
a. Present case studies on rural entrepreneurs and project them as role models
b. Present case studies on innovators and creative youth of rural India
c. Present rural institutions as a role model for the rural youth and enable them to
use their small resources in better way to create an educational model that suits
local requirements (rather then praising those institutons which are working for
MNCs and preparing youth for the future requirements of MNCs).