Pawan Kumar a 10th standard school dropout was struggling to make two ends meet, before PTVPL approached him. There are countless number of youth across the length and breadth of India like Pawan. In Virkhanpeth where Pawan spent his lifetime of 17 years, there were hardly any employment opportunities. The 1 acre of land that he had inherited from his father, was hardly enough to provide sustenance for his three sisters and mother. With the farming season limited to five months from July to November, he used to make do with working as a worker with one of the local sweet shop, as a daily wage labourer. He was frustrated with the Rs. 70 that he used to be paid at the end of a day full of backbreaking labour of making sweets. Out of this Rs. 70, Pawan had to spend Rs. 40 for food, thus leaving only Rs. 30 in Pawan’s hands. Pawan was frustrated at this life of exploitation where he could see no hope beyond his narrow horizon of village, family field and back-breaking and poorly paid labour at the sweet shop.

Then one day, came to his village a stranger from Hyderabad named Leenesh representing Pipal Tree Ventures Pvt Ltd (PTVPL). This stranger was talking about training and an assured job. Pawan and his friends wondered, if they could ever work in a company as normal workers with uniforms, a place to stay, and earn a regular and decent salary. They had their fears of stepping out of their villages as this stranger was asking them to do for acquiring training and then working at a place far from their village. Finally some of the village boys gathered their guts and called Leenesh on his Phone to ask him what they should do if they decided to undergo that training.

In reply they were introduced to PTVPL’s process of selecting boys (from the age group of 18 to 30 years), who could be part of the venture brought to them by PTVPL. In one of the first informal chats below Banyan Tree outside the Gram Panchayat office, the stranger told them how Pipal gives the boys, a quality training over a period of a month after which there is not only an employment guarantee, but also a place to stay. Of course the training has to be financed by someone, for which Pipal Tree has tied up with some microfinance institutions like Basix. These loans are paid back by the students from their salary after they are placed in a job. The minimum take home salary after such deduction is Rs. 3500, i.e. more than Rs. 110 per day, which is far more than the Rs 30 which Pawan receives every day. Also they will be given free food and stay by the construction companies.

Pawan and his friends decided to join the training. For this they had to bid goodbye to their village and families, for one month. But soon the interesting nature of training made the pain of the sense of loss of living without the family quite bearable. During their training they were also given free food and accommodation and to top it all they learnt to do tasks that they normally saw uniformed workers doing. The absorbing nature of the training when they started using machinery and equipment made them forget the rigors of village life they had left behind. Pawan was pleased to see the change that had come over his personality.

No longer was he depressed in self-pity with a feeling of hopelessness, but he was radiant, and looked forward to learning new aspects of operations every day.