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Ramesh Swamy, Director of Unnati Foundation Bengaluru, was a student at Regional Engineering College – Bhopal (which later became NIT-Bhopal) in 1984, when the Bhopal gas tragedy struck. The college was located far from the disaster site, but Swamy remembers hearing loud sirens and clarion calls in the wee hours of the day. Students, including him, rushed to help.
“Two children to whom I was giving oxygen passed away,” recollects Swamy, who feels December 3, 1984, changed his life. “Since then, I have always felt like I wanted to do something for society.”
While he started off with funding education of school students alongside running his logistics business, he later pivoted to skilling the youth. Bengaluru-based Unnati Foundation, a not-for-profit organisation working towards making Indian youth workforce- ready, became the first NGO to be listed on the NSE and BSE Social Stock Exchange in 2023.
Swamy talks to The Hindu about skilling gap in the country, how the programmes of the foundation aim to bridge this gap and how the social stock exchange could help NGOs.
Tell us about Unnati
We started Unnati in 2003 based on three major principles.
One, if we train somebody, we must give them a job. We are very clear about creating impact and a job after the training is important to ensure that. The youngsters who enrol for the programme are trained for 35 days and are ensured a job in a corporate company. So far, we have been able to maintain a 100% track record.
Second, we looked at inclusive growth. Inclusive growth is not just about money, but also about your behaviour, communication, personal grooming, and so on. Those life skills and values are a big part of the training.
Third was, they should become a change agent who is able to create a change in the society or the community from where they come.
In the first five years, we were able to train 320 youngsters. We then started training at a centre and the number started going up from 60 a year to 600-1000 a year.
By 2011, we formed a separate company called SGBS Unnathi Foundation, a Section 8 company, to drive employability. In 2014, Axis Bank came in and helped us to scale up to around 30 centres.
Today we have around 50 centres in seven states. There are 15-16 centres in Karnataka, five in Delhi, 15 centres in Maharashtra, one in Tamil Nadu, two in Andhra, two in Telangana, and so on.
Can you tell us about the UNXT programme?
In 2018, a then nodal placement officer of Karnataka government told us that government colleges saw less than 10% placement rate. Around 1,50,000 youth come out of government colleges every year. Such a dismal number of people getting jobs is a serious concern. Many from rural backgrounds don’t get hired because of inability to communicate and lack of confidence. But unemployability leads to frustration, anger, and anti-social activities making it a dangerous situation.
We thought how we could offer them a level playing field and felt if we could help them strangthen their communication, grooming, confidence, attitude and inclination for continuous, it could help them crack interviews and get their first job. That is when we started UNXT. It is a free, 165-hour, CSR-funded training initiative that equips underprivileged youth with these real-world skills. Our people go to colleges and train students in English, life skills, values.
By 2022-23, skilling started getting a lot of focus, with the Prime Minister also talking about it. So there was a bigger shift of CSR into skilling. That helped us. In 2024 alone, over 1.26 lakh youth across 12 states were trained through UNXT. In 2025-2026, we are looking at training 2 lakh youth across the country, only through CSR. The costs are as low as ₹1,600 per person.
Our next big step is now taking shape. We have a portal called Udyogam where the UNXT trainee’s video resume will be featured for companies which are hiring. The idea is to see if we could reach MSMEs in smaller towns and villages. This would facilitate local hiring which could stop a lot of migration.
In the Unnati programme, how do you guarantee jobs?
Frankly, that is the easiest part. If I create a product which everyone uses, is superior, and offer it at the right price, there will definitely be demand for it. Here that product is the empowered youngsters who are being trained. Our placements happen in 48 hours after the training period.
What sectors do they find jobs in?
People who are not educated at all or are below 10th standard find jobs in logistics, food chain backend, hospitality and so on. Those who are 10th standard-plus get hired by retail shops such as Shoppers Stop, Fab India, Westside, Soch and so on as salespersons. Twelfth standard-plus get into domestic BPO. Those with slightly better education get placed in BFSI where they require people in insurance, data, monitoring and so on.
For UNXT I’m aiming to train 2 lakh people this year. In UNXT 35% get jobs. The moment my Udyogam becomes better. The reach becomes better. Those who will be getting listed on Udyogam will only be from the UNEXT.
What about jobs offered after UNXT programme?
Currently around 30-35% people trained in UNXT find jobs.
Largely they are from ITI or BA/B.Com background. Bulk of them find administrative jobs. A large part of ITI trainees find jobs in factories. But we don’t have full details of their placements.
The programme is funded by CSR, and we don’t charge participants. We are audited by the approved auditor of the government of India and in the audit, it was revealed that 81% of the youth whom we have trained, belong to SC/ST and OBCs. 90-plus percentage are from the rural areas.
Under the centre model we charge ₹1,000. In the Bengaluru centre, we charge ₹5,000 as it also includes food and stay. But in case the participants don’t have money to pay us upfront, they can pay us back after they get placed and start earning. In all other centers except Bengaluru, it’s day-scholar model.
Unnati was the first NGO to be listed on Social Stock Exchange (SSE). Has it helped the work you do?
On December 13, 2023, we became the first organisation in the country to be registered and listed in the social stock exchanges. As of today, there are only 13-14 organisations which have been listed and registered on SSE. Unnathi has done it twice. We created history again when we registered again on March 13th this year.
It lends credibility to our work and tells the world that our books, documentation and compliance is in place. It shows our transparency and impact.
It also helps us to have our housekeeping in good order.
How does SSE work? Why did you list again in March?
SSE works slightly different from the traditional stock exchange.
Unlike the stock exchange of a commercial nature where shares are issued, here an instrument called the ZCZP instrument goes into the donor account. If you donate ₹10,000, you get a 10,000 ZCZP instrument in your DMAT account.
The day I complete my work and submit the report, your ZCZP instrument which was valued at 10,000 will become zero. You don’t get dividends. It is purely a donation, and anybody can donate. The minimum investment in SSE was recently lowered by Sebi to ₹1,000.
If I have to raise money again, I have to go back and list again. And I will be monitored by Sebi and NSE. As a donor, you don’t have to worry if the organization is credible.
Has getting listed at SSE helped you with more donations?
The word has not spread much yet. I think it will take a few years for SSE to become very popular and respected. But we are already on that journey. Slowly, the trickle is happening. The change will happen in the years to come, and then it will become very important to be listed on SSE.
For example, Darpan ID today has become a very important document for CSR. There is no rule mandating it. But many CSR officials now refuse funds to NGOs if they don’t have a Darpan ID. A similar situation might arise tomorrow for SSE where people might lose out if they are not listed on it. One needs to be ahead of that curve.
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The Hindu
