Workers may also get skill development under NREGS by Ravish Tiwari

With manufacturing sector growth in the Eleventh Plan period estimated at 8 per cent against 11-12 per cent required to create about 2 million additional jobs in the country, the Prime Minister’s National Council on Skill Development (NCSD) is considering recommending to the Rural Development Ministry that the UPA’s flagship rural job guarantee scheme (NREGS) be widened to include providing “skill development” to unskilled wage seekers.

The issue is likely to figure at the NCSD meeting slated for April 28, under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

According to sources, the meeting is likely to deliberate amending the preamble and Schedule 1 of the NREGA to provide skill development to workers “having completed stipulated number of days of unskilled manual labour” in the list of works allowed under the scheme.

At the same time, the focus may primarily be on skill development in the “artisan sector”, such as handlooms and handicrafts, given reports of artistes taking up unskilled work under the NREGS.

In fact, earlier this year, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi had felicitated the District Collector of Sant Ravidas Nagar (formerly Bhadohi) in Uttar Pradesh for effective implementation of NREGS under which a large number of artisans previously engaged in carpet inustry had taken up works under the scheme to meet ends.

Given the spread of the NREGS, it is expected to help the government’s skill development initiative reach needy sections which otherwise may choose to let their skills go waste and live off NREGS wages.

This week’s meeting will also talk about skill upgradation of farm labour. With agriculture and allied sectors contributing about 15 per cent of the GDP while employing more than 50 per cent of the working population in the country, talks will focus on helping farm workers upgrade skills to take up employment in allied sectors like animal husbandry, horticulture, food processing.

Focus is likely to be on the populous and primarily agrarian states like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, West Bengal and Assam.

The meeting is also likely to consider designating “skill training” activity by private sector as a separate category, eligible for financing under the priority sector lending and reduced interest rate structures.

The proposed credit support is likely to benefit private initiatives from the health service sector, IT sector, as well as hospitality and tourism sector because the government has identified these sectors as focus areas for their employment-generating potential.