From founding a logistics training organization to spreading art awareness to dedicating a book to truck drivers, a thirst for change and new challenges have driven Divya Jain a long way. She has founded Safeducate which contributes towards creating a vast pool of skilled workforce addressing different industry sectors.

This year the prestigious Young Woman Achiever Award at the ASEAN Awards is a new addition to the many accolades that she has already won.

Jain has also co-founded a non profit organisation called St Art which works towards creating art awareness. Thinking about a community that is being unfairly ignored, she has authored a coffee table book titled Horn Please: Trucking in India. Excerpts:

Q How did Safeducate begin?

Safeducate was envisaged and conceptualised 11 years ago when skill development still existed only in dilapidated government polytechnics and new industries like logistics had yet not recognised the importance of trained manpower. While researching for my book on trucking titled Horn Please I realised that the drivers, as well as the rest of the workforce in the industry, had no formal training and no real growth prospects.

Instead of joining the family business, a reputed logistics and express distribution company, I decided to expand the group’s impact on the supply chain sector by addressing a key issue that affected the industry — the unavailability of skilled manpower to operate and manage various logistics and distribution activities.

I reached out to government bodies and partnered with the still nascent National Skill Development Corporation to create a logistics skill council to lay down standards and career paths for the sector. Safeducate initiated training and skilling initiatives, which have now been recognised as extremely crucial by all stalwarts of the industry.

Q Share some of the activities of the organization and what more do you have in mind regarding it?

Safeducate is a social enterprise that is working to drive skill development, employment and livelihood creation. It specialises in the domains of supply chain management and logistics, retail, manufacturing and automotive.

Each year we endeavour to transform the lives of over 50,000 boys and girls through our various vocational and professional certification courses and programmes. The company has over 150 training centres at strategic locations in India. These have been chosen keeping in mind the neediest areas of India such has Orissa, Bihar, North-East, and they work closely with the local community to promote livelihood creation through skilling and job placements.

By using the latest technology, innovative tools and rich pool of experienced, qualified and certified trainers, and subject matter experts, we are constantly working to transform the lives of our different types of learners via highly focused and industry relevant courses, programmes and interventions.

Q Share a bit on your classroom designing project.

The Safeducate Container School, which was created using recycled shipping containers was inaugurated by Narendra Modi, the Prime Minister of India and made a key part of the Skill India initiative taken by the government.

We used scrapped shipping containers and converted them into mobile skill schools at minimal costs. These schools are easy to set up and can conveniently be moved to different locations. Given the scale of skilling needed in our country, we must be innovative in our approach and think out-of-the-box. Safeducate, and now a lot of other players too, have adopted these schools to create quality infrastructure in the hard to reach regions of the country.

Q Why, according to you, is art education important?

Art is an expression of our society; it is a mirror of how it thinks and why. It is important for us not only to encourage and support artists among us but also our students to appreciate and understand the art around us.

Q What particularly moved you about the plight of truckers in India?

I always felt this neglected industry was never given its due credit. It’s highly unorganised as a sector and that is something we wanted to change. It’s actually the most important sector to the economy. From cricket matches to elections, truckers play a significant role in connecting the entire country. When you hear the term “truck drivers” the things that come to mind are drunkenness, AIDS, traffic jams and accidents. What we fail to notice is their vivid colours, the lives of the truck drivers, their joys and how important they are to us and our lives. They live hard lives away from their families, with harsh working conditions while on the move and get no respect from society for their significant contributions to keep our world running. This instigated me to start a conversation around them and their well being, which resulted in the coffee table book Horn Please.

Q From students to artists, to truck drivers — you have catered to different sections of the society. What drives such diversity in your outlook?

I love change and new challenges; whenever I see an issue or a problem I need to solve it or figure out how to fix it. The transition from working with students to advocating from drivers keeps me excited and also helps bring fresh perspectives every time I address it.

Q Where do you see yourself 10 years from now?

That’s an interesting question. I would hope to have a Safeducate institute in every district of the country. I also look forward to joining politics maybe, I do feel real change will come from social leaders who are willing to talk the