JOIN USBuilding confidence among rural minds
When it comes to civil services, the State has always lagged behind and very few of them make it to the top jobs in the country. However, realising this lacunae, a few retired officers all with rural background came together and decided to do something about this.
The result is the Krishik Sarvodaya Foundation which was started in Bangalore in the nineties.
“It was the brainchild of my classmate Y K Puttasome Gowda, IAS (retd) and three others the late S Rame Gowda, N S Rame Gowda both education experts and T Thimme Gowda, IAS (retd) besides a few other like-minded people who came together to start this foundation. The whole idea was to see that rural youth also get the benefit to compete in the civil service examinations,” said KSF, Mysore, secretary B K Shivanna.
The KSF started functioning in Bangalore first in a building let out by builder L Sambashiva Reddy and later moved on to their own building on old Airport Road. Here so far 45 IAS, IPS, IRS and Indian Railway Services have cleared the exams and been selected. In the Karnataka Administrative Service exams 60 to 70 have been successful, he said.
The focus in Mysore has been on gazetted post examinations. “When one takes stock of available coaching facilities in the city, one notices that there is a wide gap between what is expected and what is delivered. KSF attempts to bridge this gap,” said Shivanna.
As a first step the foundation went about acquiring land and it is now located at Vijayanagar II Stage, next to St Joseph Public School. “The 240 square building with four floors is built on a 1.25 acres land and the foundation provides all like a well-stocked library, with internet facility. The library subscribes to all leading dailies and magazines,” said treasurer S V Gowdappa, a retired executive engineer.
Once the aspirants pass the final competitive examinations, they are send to New Delhi to learn to face the interviews. “Top level civil service officers from Karnataka are invited to train the aspirants to face the interviews and the grounding they get is so good that many have been successful,” said Shivanna.
Not only the coaching is for IAS and KAS but there are other courses at KSF like Karnataka Education Service where the course is intended for B Ed graduates for the posts of high school head masters in education department, Karnataka State Police Service and Central Reserve Police, coaching for banking examinations and Karnataka Engineering Services.
Since the aim of KSF is to focus on rural students, they are exposed to the idea of entering for competitive service examinations at a young age when they come for common entrance test coaching. Classes for this are organised in the month of March and April. “The students who come for these classes are from Hunsur, KR Nagar, KR Pet, Pandavapura, Nanjungud, Srirangapatna, Hinkal and Ilwal. Also the current demand is for Panchayat Development Officers (PDO) and this year many are being trained to face these examinations,” said Shivanna.
However, he said that not many come forward to take up civil service exams and a few who do come pass their preliminary exams and then are asked to go to Bangalore for coaching for written examinations. “Unless there are at least five to ten candidates we cannot hold classes here,” he said.
DBali IT Solutions a soft skills training academy in collaboration with KSF is training students in personality devotement, life style skill programme and spoken English for college goers, said director A Balachandra.
The other courses on offer for rural students are housekeeping, driving, TV and mobile repairs, said Shivanna as these vocational courses will also provide jobs and help stop migration from rural areas to urban areas. “As the students who come from rural areas find it difficult to stay, hostel facilities will be started shortly in the fourth floor of the building,” said Gowdappa.
The foundation is planning to start BBM and B Com courses in the future and also has plans of setting up study centre for Karnataka State Open University.