Entrepreneur Narayanan makes sure poor children get good jobs

As Narayanan's tryst with youth empowerment has roots in his spiritual upbringing that taught him to better people's lives with more meaningful inputs than just money. The 51-year-old entrepreneur, who heads a city-based packaging firm called Milan, not only funds primary education for the underprivileged, but provides them vocational training and employment opportunities later on.

"I come from a middle-class background and my father taught me how one can find time to reach out to others despite being in the thick of one's own work," Narayanan says.

Starting off with funding students' education till Class 10, Narayanan, who has a degree in printing technology , pushed the envelope. "In 2003, I realised that even though we fund students' education, they are back on the streets due to lack of basic employability skills and opportunities." He got a group of friends together to form the Unnati Programme. It trained the youth in English language, computers, value education and life skills. "We started in a twoBHK space. With the support from the Infosys Foundation, we inaugurated a full-fledged facility in NGEF Layout in 2008."

Narayanan caught the children's attention when he started talking about job opportunities at the end of a 50-day training period. "Going by their educational qualifications, trainers divide the youngsters into vocations like retail sales, field sales, data entry, industrial tailoring and services in the hospitality sector," he said.

So far, Narayanan and other trustees have been providing free training for the underprivileged by chipping in the money themselves, donor support and corporate social responsibility . "We spend close to Rs 12,000 per student for the 50-day programme and use our networks to reach out to corporates and po tential employers," Narayanan said, adding that till date, they have empowered and employed close to 6,000 people. They aim to reach 1 million students in the coming years.

He spends time with students every week, interacting about value education and life skills. And his popularity is evident when a class full of students stand up to greet him enthusiastically. "Learning to communicate in English and using the computer has made me feel more confident of doing well at my job tomorrow. Narayanan sir and others treat me like family here," said a student.