With nearly 20,000 artisans belonging to a wide spectrum of trades in their labour data bank, Kerala Artisans Development Corporation (KADCO) is all set to form industrial cooperatives across the State to supply a skilled workforce in public and private sectors.
Along with the listed trades, the Corporation is also collecting the data of those engaged in allied activities under a separate category in order to create an extensive pool and provide labourers for every trade to complete a project.
“Since the registration is ward-level, it will be easy to deploy artisans as per requirement and convenience. We can also provide the workforce for allied trades, especially in sectors like construction where a range of skilled labourers are needed,” says Neduvathoor Sundaresan, chairman, KADCO.
Although 174 trades starting from carpentry, goldsmithery and pottery are part of the list, many of the traditional trades are on the brink of extinction rendering many artisans jobless.
The Corporation plans to support the artisans by helping them adapt to the demands of modern labour market and identifying the right schemes and projects for them. “At present, the State government has outsourced us some renovation works and we can now search in the data bank for artisans from the nearby places. Each time we will form a collective of artisans from all trades needed for a particular project before handing over the work. It will ensure job opportunities for artisans from every region and even private parties can avail themselves of this facility,” he adds.
In the initial phase, the Corporation will form taluk-level industrial cooperatives across Kerala controlled by an apex body functioning under the direct supervision of the KADCO. Since there are different grades among skilled workers, the Corporation also plans to conduct training sessions offering them an opportunity to upgrade and fine tune their skills.
“We will be offering them skill development programmes so that they can work in the next level.” The registration for the labour data bank had started in February 2020 through 2,717 Akshaya centres in the State and KADCO had instructed all artisan organisations to register the names of their members.
“Since we started the process in February, many of the artisans failed to register their names due to the pandemic. Since only a percentage could reach out to us, we have kept the option open and in future, we will continue to update it with the support of IT Mission,” says Mr.Sundaresan.
