With an aim to impart various skills to workers under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), the State mission has launched the 'Mikavu' project on a pilot basis in 56 grama panchayats.
According to officials at the State mission, it is an effort towards addressing the lack of skilled labour to take up the scheme’s asset creation. The training programme is being jointly implemented by the Kerala Institute of Local Administration (KILA), MGNREGS State mission and respective local bodies.
One of the focusses of the project will be to provide training in various jobs that are part of construction activities. The workers in each area are divided into groups of 10 and training is imparted under an expert in a specific trade for each group.
The initial training will be in the making of soak pits, azolla tanks and cattle sheds, following which they will be trained in road construction, building of compound walls for government schools and construction of anganwadi buildings.
The State mission plans to train at least 100 workers in each panchayat in this manner to turn them into skilled labourers. Labour banks will be formed at the local level using them. They will have the opportunity to be a part of various asset creation activities being taken up under the MGNREGS and get higher wages of ₹700 to ₹1,200 as skilled labourers. They will also be deployed for various plan projects under the local bodies thus aiding in the speeding up of project implementation.
KILA has set aside ₹10 crore for the training programme. A State-level expert team has prepared a module for training purposes. The training programme will be expanded to the rest of the local bodies based on the success of the pilot launch in the 56 grama panchayats.
The MGNREGS State mission has been for the past three years making a conscious thrust on creation of durable assets under the programme. It has reflected in the increase in the State's material expenditure out of the total annual spendings from a mere 8.51% in 2018-19 to 14.26% in 2019-20 and 34.46% 2020. The material expenditure, a gauge for asset creation, is capped at 40% of the labour budget.
