The Bhutanese Leading the way.
Local leaders in Toetsho gewog, Trashiyangtse are exploring various sectors, such as tourism, livestock and lemon grass oil extraction, in an effort to create more job opportunities for school leavers in the gewog.
Today, the gewog center is supporting school leavers by providing them with milk delivery work. Around 30 to 80 liters of milk a day is delivered to a milk-processing unit in Doksum.
The dzongkhag livestock section in Trashiyangtse has also provided freezers to store milk. Although Trashiyangtse had plans to establish a milk processing unit in the dzongkhag, however, it has not materialized as yet. Toetsho gewog is hoping that the unit will be established during the next financial year.
Teotsho Gup, Dechen Wangdi, said the gewog will become self sufficient when it has its own milk processing unit. The gewog center can then train the youth in packaging the dairy products.
He added such initiatives would help create more employment opportunities in the gewog. It will encourage the youth to stay or return back home in their villages.
“Most youth spend their time wandering and looking for jobs in the town, but if we provide them jobs here, it might encourage them to stay in the villages. This will also help ease overall unemployment problem in the country, ”he said.
The gewog center is also looking at opportunities in the tourism industry and lemon grass extraction business. The Gup said that there is a huge scope for tourism in Trashiyangtse, and many of the youth have expressed their interest to be part of the industry.
The gewog hopes that tourism will fetch them with immense benefit, not just by providing job opportunities, but it will also bring in many other economic opportunities to the people.
