Under Project Umeed, the District Administration of Rupnagar has organized Training Enrollment & Self-Employment Loan Awareness Camps under the Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav Campaign across the district’s 11 OOAT Clinics. The camps were inaugurated by Deputy Commissioner Rupnagar, Ms. Preeti Yadav, Additional Deputy Commissioner-General, Ms. Nidhi Kumud Bamba, and Civil Surgeon, Mr. Parminder Kumar on the first day of June at the DH Ropar Opioid Assisted Treatment (OOAT) clinic. Following the inaugural camp, the subsequent 13 events will be held from 8 AM to 12 PM every weekday till 20th June.
Considering the holistic nature of the support granted by Project Umeed to People with Substance Abuse Disorders, the camp involved the participation of various departments in the organization and implementation of the activities. The District Bureau of Employment & Enterprises (DBEE) played an integral part in departmental coordination for the smooth operation of the camps and the dissemination of information about free online coaching for government exams. Alternatively, Punjab Skill Development Mission (PSDM), Mahatma Gandhi National Fellow (MGNF), and training partners involved focused on ensuring that the candidates and attendees were able to maximize the information that they received from the camps through awareness generation and documentation of the attendees. This focus on awareness generation was complemented by four other departments – the Agriculture Department, Dairy Development Board (DDB), Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK), and the District Industries Centre (DIC).
The Agriculture Department and the DDB focused especially on information about schemes that would assist the rehabilitation of otherwise disadvantaged members of society while the KVK concerned itself with training-related informational activities for candidates belonging to agrarian families. The DIC, in turn, directly emphasized the role of financial independence in the journey towards rehabilitation. It disseminated identity-specific, procedure-specific, and general information on loan acquisition so that recovering substance use disorder had access to self-employment loans to reimagine and restart their lives. This harmonious functioning of the departments ensured that attendees received truly holistic assistance in their journey towards rehabilitation.