BANGALORE, Dec 23: The city-based Canara Bank has recently set up Rural Development & Self Employment Training Institutes all over the country. It has deputed 16 of its employees on a voluntary basis to work in the institutes as rural- service volunteers for the development of a select 30 villages in Karnataka.

About 6,000 families may benefit from the institutes' work, a senior bank official said.

The institutes' curriculum include developmental programmes like adult education, providing clean drinking-water facilities, construction of roads and sanitation.

They have also organised a bridge course, a joint activity in association with the Nettur Training Foundation, as a preparatory training programme for rural students. The main objective of this scheme is to motivate relatively educated youth in villages to pursue a technical course and also prepare them for entrance exams, where they have to compete with urban students.

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