A million workers of Odisha returned during the COVID-19 pandemic from other States with great difficulty, but the State government has identified less than 18,000 workers for skilling.
The State government has carried out skill mapping of those who returned from other States in the pandemic period.
“As many as 10,07,330 persons returned to their respective villages during the COVID-19 pandemic. Of them, 1,81,702 workers were found to be skilled in different sets of work. 5,54,754 were unskilled,” said Premananda Naik, Minister for Skill Development and Technical Education, informed the State Assembly on Saturday.
Mr. Naik said skill mapping was carried out on the basis of workers’ registration in the COVID-19 portal created by the Odisha Computer Application Centre (OCAC).
Of 1.81 lakh workers, the highest number of 21,972 workers from Odisha were skilled in brick making, followed by 21,572 in masonry, while 8240 were found adept in plumbing. Ironically, the government did not assign any particular skill to 74,326 workers, although they were shown as skilled workers.
Similarly, 2,97,485 workers who returned to Odisha are performing mostly drudgery and are categorised as daily wage earners. Construction workers, numbering 82,956, were the second biggest group among unskilled workers.
The highest number of 2,25,602 workers had returned to Ganjam district, followed by 1,08,469 workers to Balangir. Balasore, Nuapada and Bhadrak districts, all of which had very high migration.
“Skill gap study has been initiated under the SANKALP programme of the Union Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship in different districts. The District Skill Development plan is also being prepared. In 16 districts, the skilled development plan has been completed,” the Minister pointed out.
According to information tabled in the Assembly, short term training has been sanctioned for 4,888 persons in four districts. The Panchayati Raj Department has given masonry training to 6,612 persons while 6,496 workers participated in different job fairs.
“We have lost a precious chance of skilling workers further. The government should have immediately registered workers under the Interstate Migrant Workmen Act so that a proper database of workers could have been maintained,” said Umi Daniel, a prominent expert on migration issues.
Mr. Daniel said most of the workers who had returned home during COVID-19 had probably migrated to other States again. “Had these workers registered, the government could have found some sort of mechanism to skill them at their respective workplaces and help increase their wage,” he said, adding that the skill gap study was bit slow in capturing the real data.
