Dr Muneer’s brainchild ‘Unnathi’ emphasises the importance of ‘human infrastructure in Nation building’

Infrastructure & Development are words often thrown around by political leaders. Developing the human infrastructure is as important or perhaps more important in the present world scenario. Down South, the Kerala MLA is envisioning the project ‘Unnathi’ which can be a gamechanger in the development paradigm that the nation is pursuing. A path-breaking initiative which envisages to cope with the ever-evolving needs in the education and employment domain. Now the project which is being implemented in his Koduvally constituency is having lot of enthusiastic response from around the country.

Dr MK Muneer’s vision for human infrastructure development is to assist every student in identifying their skills, their uniqueness, mentoring their aptitude and guiding them to a career that suits them. This initiative, one of the pioneering of its kind, equips students to scale great heights through continuous intervention programmes like entrance coaching to gain access to the country’s major higher education centres. Through proper and professional career guidance, aptitude assessment, training for entrance tests and high-profile placements, the young minds in Koduvally constituency will conquer their dreams to secure high-paying jobs across the globe. Ensuring public participation and professional guidance in choosing the best for tomorrow’s leaders, the human resources are utilised in its full potential to develop Koduvally into a constituency of excellence.

A world-class technology platform with seven modules will assess the aptitude and personality of students in class VIII and their talent and skills will be honed and encouraged with the help of professional career coaches to find what the future has in store for them. ‘Unnathi’ the name signifies rise and progress in the native language of Malayalam and the idea behind the programme is to identify the character and aptitude of children at the right time and guide them the proper way. Unnathi has many dimensions.

The Unnathi programme for higher secondary students focuses on providing coaching, orientation and mock tests to prepare for entrance examinations to various universities and centres of excellence across the nation. The Common University Entrance Test (CUET) coaching trains students who have passed Class XII to gain entrance to the country’s 45 central universities, including Jawaharlal Nehru University, Jamia Milia, Hyderabad, Pondicherry and Banaras.

For youngsters who are in search of a job, Unnathi has a career aptitude assessment programme. The best career options of the era and the opportunities in the future are introduced and professional guidance and training are provided to youngsters. After that, with the assistance of government and private agencies, facilities are offered to them to enroll in the programme and land in their dream job.

Apart from training students and job seekers, the other Unnathi programmes include higher education research, courses for job training, career guidance and counseling, entrance coaching, overseas education guidance, leadership& skill training, physical education teacher empowerment and awareness programmes for parents.

Agriculture being the major livelihood in the country, Unnathi has a programme to empower farmers – The Abhivridhi. The Sukritham programme conceptualised as part of Unnathi brings together health workers and hospitals across the constituency. The aim of the programme is to promote healthy living by addressing any health-related needs and concerns of the public in this era of epidemics, health complexities and lifestyle diseases.

Unnathi’s Sreshta programme intends to provide admission for students from Scheduled Caste to stateof-the-art residential schools managed by the Central Government. Karuthu programme focuses on physical well-being by promoting sports and physical activities with an intention to earn a place for Koduvally in the sports map of the country.

Unnathi is empowered by people who will work as volunteers for the programmes. One volunteer will be in charge of 50 households, and together, they will associate with panchayats and municipalities which will facilitate knowledge centres. The knowledge centres will be guided by passionate professionals such as social workers psychologists, career coaches, personality development trainers, knowledge brigade, knowledge warriors, academicians, subject experts, etc. An action committee will offer suggestions and facilities to the knowledge centres in the constituency.

Unnathi utilises to its core both human resources and government resources for the execution of the programmes. Teachers and academicians will join hands for the projects. A comprehensive social-educational survey will be initiated to cover all households in the constituency; based on it, Unnathi will be executed and strengthened. A technology platform in this regard is underway. Aptitude tests will be conducted in schools for the purpose.

Education experts around the nation are exploring and learning from the model which is putting forward a paradigm of holistic human infrastructure development.