Skills: Apart from their usual farming works and household chores, about 35 unemployed youths in Decheling Gewog, Nganglam, are attending home appliances repair training.

The youth said they hope they can earn some income by using the skills once the training completes.

The three-month training organised by the Samdrupjongkhar regional labour office is happening at the gewog’s multipurpose hall.

Most of the trainees are school dropouts who live in the village helping parents including two farmers, who say they joined the training because of their interest to learn about electrical appliances.

Tashi Dolkar, 17, said it has been two weeks since the training started and she has already made attempts to repair damaged rice cookers and water boilers.

The trainees said they look forward to repairing electrical appliances at reasonable rates in the neighborhood after the training. People in the locality usually take their appliances to Patshala, a border town to 50km away from the gewog.

Yeshi Tharchen, 39, said people also sold off their damaged electrical appliances to scrap dealers. “Now we would know what caused the damage and repair it”.

Some of the trainees said they could start small repair shops and earn income.

Sonam Yangdon, 28, said she intends to start a repair shop. “People need not have to take their appliances to the border town.”

As of now, the trainees collected about 34 damaged rice and curry cookers and water boilers from the village to repair as part of their practical learning.

A trainee, Sangay Thinley, said they repaired more than 10 appliances and charged Nu 50 for each repair.

Meanwhile, labour ministry’s regional director, Sonam Bumtap, said the training is aimed at developing skills and achieving self-reliance for people to earn an income under the village skills development programme that mostly target unemployed youth.

“We give them the equipment and tools so that they can continue to utilise their skills even after the training,” he said. “We’ll continue to provide such training in gewogs where there are more unemployed youths.”

The trainees are also provided Nu 1,800 as stipend per month.

Yangchen C Rinzin | Nganglam