NEW DELHI: Instead of hiring young boys and girls, sometimes trafficked or routed through exploitative agencies, as helps, urban households could have the option of hiring of skilled youth, who can drive, cook, clean, provide first aid and handle laundry and may be even bank work.The skills, which could include more paying and regular employment like masonry, carpentry and gardening will be imparted under a programme being implemented by Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB), the central paramilitary force that guards India’s borders with Nepal and Bhutan.The programme called ‘Man Friday’ (though it will train girls too) is intended to produce “multi-talented” domestic helps and workers by training boys and girls from villages in border areas and regions that have been under Maoist influence.An officer explained the trained domestic help, once hired by an individual, can well be ‘jack of all trades’ as they will be able to handle all the regular household jobs and while also doubling up for other tasks. Keeping their skills in mind, they might earn more than raw youth who land up in cities.The force chalked out the specialised skill training programme after it took note of the steady and unregulated migration of young people, often in unsafe circumstances, to cities. Officials found that many domestic workers are trafficked from border areas or other countries and are working in cities.SSB decided to train and groom rural youth, especially keeping elderly employers in mind, who find it a challenge to visit banks, or do their everyday work.The ‘Man Fridays’ will be trained at eight centres of SSB, which are Pithoragarh (Uttarakhand), Gorakhpur (Uttar Pradesh), Falakata (West Bengal), Bongaigaon (Assam), Debendranagar (Assam) and three places in Naxal affected districts – Bhilai, Ranchi and Muzaffarpur.The program will be formally launched on September 7 in Delhi.