My dream made in India: Krishna Toppo

Skill
Electric welding

First salary expectation
Rs: 12,000

Aspiration
After failing Class X eight years ago, Krishna looked around aimlessly for a job till he started learning welding at a local fabrication unit. The tribal started with Rs 160 per day; now a trained welder, that has gone up to Rs 350.

However, all depends on if he gets work. “The last time I earned something was eight months ago. If I can get a job in a local factory, I would not be a burden on my father,” says Krishna. His elder brother too doesn’t have a steady job, working as a temporary driver for a private electricity distribution company in Rourkela. The youngest studies at an ITI.

After years of plying an autorickshaw in Rourkela, their father got a stable job 10 years ago at the SAIL plant. The family manages because of the paddy they harvest from own land. Among the few hundred tribal households in their colony, not many hold stable jobs.
Krishna has few hopes of that changing. Lately, at least 10 sponge iron plants in Sundargarh have shut down due to shortage of iron ore.

District employment officer Shabar says the unemployment figure of  Rs 65,000 is way off the mark. “Now B.Tech graduates are enrolling at the employment exchange,” he says.