Kudumbashree extends facility management services to Public Sector Undertakings
Kochi: From IIM Kozhikode products to engineering degree holders, the women self-help group Kudumbashree is now attracting highly-qualified persons to its ranks especially after it started focusing on extending facility management services which offer posts with good packages. The Kudumbashree Facility Management Centre (FMC), which is managing key posts like Ticketing and Customer facilitation in the Kochi Metro, is set to expand its presence to leading PSUs with its members being considered for posts such as Project Manager.
“We’ve already tied up with the Cochin Shipyard and the Reserve Bank of India at Ernakulam where the personnel have been deployed. Talks are on with major PSUs and health care institutions like the Malabar Cancer Centre to offer the management services. We’ve taken over management of the AC waiting room at Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Ernakulam and Thrissur railway stations,” S. Harikishore, Executive Director, Kudumbashree, told DC.
Though it so far worked as a self-help group among women in rural households, highly-qualified young candidates are now joining its ranks in large numbers. For instance Dilraj K. R., Project Manager of the FMC, passed out from the IIM Kozhikode, and there are several B Tech and MCA holders among those who joined the Category-2 posts in the Kochi Metro. “I’m an active member of Kudumbashree for over five years and the secretary of its Sreemoolanagaram unit. After my shift in Kochi Metro gets over, I burn midnight lamp to finish the self-help group works including tallying of bills and loan figures among others,” says Tahira M S (39), a BCA-DCFA holder, who has over 10 years of work experience before joining the Kochi Metro.
Neethu P. S. (27), who topped the selection test conducted by the Centre for Management Studies (CDS) for the Kochi Metro posts, says she opted the job after resigning her earlier one at the HMT Machine Tools Ltd out of “pure passion”. Her mother is an active Kudumbashree worker from Thiruvankulam and it inspired her too to join the group. Neethu is a B Tech holder and has a PG diploma in Industrial Automation. At present, nearly 700 Kudumbashree members are employed in the Kochi Metro with half of them deployed in the Category Two posts (Team Leaders, Ticketing and Customer Satisfaction among others. Another batch of 120 candidates will be handed over appointment letters in a month’s time to be deployed in the Palarivattom-Maharajas section.
