Through a unique interaction with local industry and a milk cooperative for women, the Greater Noida Industrial Development Authority (GNIDA) is generating employment for the people going through social change due to land acquisition. Says Brijesh Kumar, chairman, GNIDA: ``This is a new city and we have acquired land from a large number of villagers. We are keen that the people of the villages, especially those whose land has been acquired, become participants in the process of urbanisation and development. They should also reap the benefits of whatever development takes place in Greater Noida. With that in mind, we want to amalgamate the existing population in our developmental process,'' he says.

``Greater Noida is one of the few places where land compensation has been decided by negotiations. That is why we arepaying a value for land which is far higher than what gets fixed under the normal land acquisition laws,'' he adds.

Besides that, GNIDA is giving back 10 per cent of the acquired saleable land to the villagers, for their future growth within the urban premises. ``We are providing them with a space to grow. We re-sell roughly half of the land acquired from the villages,'' says Kumar.

But the thrust of community development which the authority is taking up relates to generating employment opportunities. ``One set of employment opportunities for the villagers is linked to industries which are coming in. We are setting up an institute of tools room training for both Noida and Greater Noida. We have also started part-time courses like a special computer course for girl students, which has been running for more than one year now. Broadly speaking, the idea is to provide the people with vocational skills. There are three industrial training institutes (ITIs) engaged in imparting vocational skills to villagers,''adds Kumar.

The authority has also liasioned with industries nearby and achieved good results. ``Some industries have come forward to generate employment opportunities for the people here. They have a list of people whose land they have taken and we are ensuring that they employ one person from each displaced family. But there is a mismatch between the skill available and the requirement of the industry. Therefore, over the past four or five months, we have persuaded the big industries to train people according to their requirements,'' says Kumar.

New Holland tractors have sponsored 20 village youth from displaced families to study at the ITI. They have also promised to employ them, provided they pass the examination. Super Seals, an auto ancillary company, has already employed four people and Honda Siel has employed 67 people through the efforts of the authorities.

``It is not an easy task to persuade members of displaced families to take up new skills, which will finally get them employment. It tookus about three months to persuade them on upgrading their skills,'' says Renuka Chauhan, senior manager, rural development and systems, GNIDA. Greater Noida has nearly 130 villages in the area. Besides the 29 villages which are hotbeds of industrial activity, there are around 100 villages where agriculture is the source of subsistence.

GNIDA has innovated with a unique dairy cooperative for women, to help them become financially independent.

``A dairy cooperative is a unique value-added economic activity. It is additional income for the women of the village. Under the aegis of our dairy federation, each member sells some milk to them,'' says Kumar.

``We have 51 societies with the membership growing to 1,900, spread across 126 villages. We encourage women to become members from every village society. Besides monetary help, a welcome value-addition is knowledge of financial operations which goes hand-in-glove with getting paid for the milk and operating their own bank accounts,'' she feels.