It really is good news.
From: Dilip/Dil Deka <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: ASSAMNET <assam@assamnet.org>
Subject: [Assam] Assam Textile Institute
Date: Tue, 16 May 2006 14:45:54 -0700 (PDT)
I used to walk by this institute every day when I lived in Guwahati and wondered what the purpose of it was. From the news below I seem to understand. It is even more exciting that the institute and its students are doing so well.Granted the students are seeking employment elsewhere, but the rebirth of the institute shows there can be a turn around with determination and proper techniques. Who was the prime mover behind all this?Dilip========================================================
Alumni setting example for others
By Ajit Patowary
GUWAHATI, May 15 It is good news. One more instituion in the State has proved its resilience to rise above the quagmire it had been in for the past one decade or so. The more striking fact is that this institution has managed to bail itself out of the crisis with its own initiative using the resources in its possesion. It seldom clamoured for Government aid and it prepared itself to come out of the morass, maintaining a gritty silence.
It is the 86-year-old Assam Textile Institute located in Ambari area, near the Guwahati Club here. Once sought to be written off, this Institute is now vibrating with restored vitality.
This institute, which was started with an annual budgetary allocation of Rs 150 only at a rented house in the Dighali Pukhuri Par area, is now located on a sprawling plot of 13.47 bighas. It has been there at its present site since 1927. Though its location is very much in the heart of the city, it is still separated by a sort of a veil from the common people. And this is why, that it had been suffering from serious crisis and that its students were facing serious problems in their placement etc, are still not known to the Guwahatians, let alone the people of the other areas.
The Institute today has an annual intake capacity of 70 students (textile- 30; garment- 20; fashion-20). It runs three year courses in textile technology, garment technology and fashion technology. It introduced the courses in garment and fashion technology only in 2004. All these courses are approved by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE). It is perhaps the only Institute in the country which is imparting lessons on textile technology, garment technology and fashion technology under the same umbrella, said the Institute sources.
The courses it offers, particularly the ones in garment and fashion technology, have tremendous placement potential with high salary packets, besides, incredible self-employment opportunities for the students passing out of the Institute. But, with almost all the textile units under shut down, the recruitment scenario in the State has remained simply bleak for its students for the past about one decade.
However, the authorities and students of the Institute refused to give in. Knowing that they will have to be onto the outside-the-State job market, they started a determined joint campaign a couple of years back. The strategy they chalked out to meet the crisis was a very simple but wonderful one.
According to the Institute sources, they started the excursion programme for the final semester students after their final examinations in October, 2004. The itinerary was so planned that it covered the textile industry hubs of Haryana, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Goa Daman Diu.
And the gameplan worked. Two of the student members of the excursion team stayed back in Goa Daman Diu and Gujarat. The rest of the students around 16 in number returned, as if, only to get their results. No sooner they received their results, they too were also recruited by different textile mills in Maharashtra,, Goa Daman Deu, Haryana and Gujarat.
Once the trick clicked, great entusiasm was generated among the students and also within the Institute authorities in connection with the excursion. Again, in 2005, the excusrion was organised and about 16 students of the Institute secured jobs in different textile mills spread over the countrys textile industry zone.
All these alumnae and alumni of the Assam Textile Institute are doing very well and the alumnae of the Institute have set an example of working in metros and other areas of the country with accolades. About eight such alumnae of the Institute are now working as textile technologists drawing high salary packets, in different textile mills far away from their native State.
And about the alumni? Some of the Institute alumni are heading the operational wings of different mills, occupying even the posts of general managers in some of the flourishing mills. Interestingly, some of the Institue alumni are now running some textile mills in Gujarat on their own, taking such mills on hire. The original owners heap praise on them for the efficiency and commitment they have been demonstrating. Some other alumni of the Institute are now exporters and some of them are working in export houses that deal in textile products, said the sources.
Since the initial hurdles have been overcome, the authorities of the Institute are now preparing for bringing in more qualitative improvement among its students. Since, lack of communication skill makes the students from this part of the country handicapped, the authorities of the Institute introduced a self-sustaining spoken English course with the help of experts. For the purpose, a nominal fee is charged from the students.
Attempts have also been made to help the students develop their personalities and to prepare them for interviews. In this connection, help has been taken from an expert of Asom-origin. This has proved to be very fruitful.
Now, except their own typical homesickness, all the hurdles on the way of placement of the students have been removed. Demand for the Institutes textile technology students is growing in Gujarat, Maharashtra, Haryana and Jharkhand. Its garment and fashion technology students are still to complete one and half-a-year of their courses. By October/November, 2007 they will be completing their courses, said the sources.
By this time with the help of the internal revenue it is generating, the Institute has procured laboratory equipment, machines and library books and it has also procured a computer software on garment. All these, for an expenditure of around Rs 3 lakh.
Its library is now equipped with journals and magazines on various topics connected with the above courses. The number of books in the library has already crossed the 10,000 mark.
It is also running a community polytechnic cell where free training is provided to economically backward people and the items they produce during their training are sold to generate internal revenue at cost price. This is helping the best of the trainees to get selfemployment, said the sources.
Meanwhile, the Institute has moved the DONER Ministry for assistance in modernising and augmenting its infratructure with an estimated cost of over Rs 8 crore. Under the scheme, it has proposed laboratories for garment and fashion technology and overall upgradation of the textile technology course, said the sources.
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