Dhanchatani near Jamshedpur where the second rural skill development centre will come up. Picture by Bhola Prasad

One could perhaps call it hi-tech social engineering. Dhanchatani will do a Gumla now, thanks to former IITians.

Dhanchatani, a sleepy hamlet 25km from Jamshedpur, will host the state’s second Gurukul, a rural skills development centre run by former IITians — they call themselves Parfi or Pan-IIT Alumni Reach For India — and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).

The first Gurukul at rebel turf Gumla has already trained scores of tribal youths in specialised construction work and facilitated their jobs at Bhubaneshwar and Gurgaon with salaries of around Rs 7,000 a month.

At Dhanchatani, the residential centre — construction starts in two months — will make dropouts from remote East Singhbhum villages employable in the manufacturing sector. Rural dropouts either stay on in villages or hunt for jobs in cities, but can’t make a decent living simply because they don’t have skills to barter for an income.

The project, worth an estimated Rs 50 lakh and partly funded by the Centre’s integrated action plan, aims to equip youths with specialised manufacturing-industry training.

“A non-matriculate can be a great welder. And the skill will help him earn a living,” said East Singhbhum DC Himani Pande on Tuesday, after a meeting on this issue.

She met SSP Akhilesh Jha, deputy development commissioner (district welfare officer) Filbus Barla and other senior bureaucrats at the district collectorate to chalk out the finer details. “The agreement has been finalised between Parfi, CII and partly by Tata Steel on June 5. We will start with 50 students,” Pande said.

At the Gumla Gurukul, a student who dropped out of school at, say, Class V, is also welcomed. Pande said they would do the same here.

“We are looking at a holistic solution to rural poverty. In villages, students leave school due to a variety of reasons. Rebel fear or poverty apart, sometimes even the huge distance between home and school tires a child,” Pande said.

What will make the Gurukul cutting-edge is the quality of inputs — former IITians give hands-on training — and placements. Tata Motors and Tata Steel will help students get jobs either in their own plants, sister concerns or ancillary units.