Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh on Tuesday said a special action plan with its focus on unorganised sector workers should be formulated at Centre and State levels to ensure the success of ‘Skill India’ Mission.
Addressing the final meeting of the Sub-Group of Chief Ministers on ‘Skill India’ at NITI Aayog in New Delhi, Singh said, “There are a large numbers of workers in unorganised sector in the country. To successfully attain the goal of Skill India Mission, we need to include these workers in skill development programmes.”
The Chhattisgarh Chief Minister said that keeping in mind the limited resources available with the Government, investments from private
sector should be included in the programme to develop India as the centre of skill development.
He suggested that a framework should be prepared to ensure that private sector invest 50 per cent of their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) fund in skill development programme and take the responsibility of recruiting at least 75 per cent trainees.
Singh also suggested that a separate fund should be created in social sector ventures and it should be supervised by Central Government.
He said that institutions such as IIT and IIIT should be included in the programme to design curriculum for skill development.
Chief Minister of Punjab Prakash Singh Badal, who is the Convener of the Sub-group, presented a draft report at the onset of the meeting and asked the chief ministers of various states to give their opinion and suggestions on the draft.
At the end of the meeting, the members of the Sub-group agreed to finalise the draft report by incorporating last minute suggestions.
Chhattisgarh’s Principal Secretary,Technical Education, Science and Technology and Manpower Planning, Renu Pillai, Resident Commissioner B V Umadevi and OSD to Chief Minister Vikram Sisodiya were also present at the meeting.
The Chief Ministers of Assam, Chhattisgarh, Meghalaya Tripura and Goa attended the meeting.
The Minister for Employment, Technical Education & Training from Odisha was also present at the meeting.
The rest of the member States namely Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry were represented by their senior officers.
Member of NITI Aayog Dr V KSaraswat and other senior officials were also present at the meeting. The CEO of NITI AAYOG Sindhushree Khullar, presented the recommendations of the Draft Report before the Members for their views.
The deliberations focused on empowering and strengthening the State Skill Development Missions to address the challenge of skill development at the State level in a decentralized manner so as to improve the outreach of skill development.
The emphasis was also laid on increasing participation by women and other socio-economic groups. It was suggested that appropriate credit and market linkages be provided for entrepreneurial development which can act as force multiplier for employment generation.
The Sub-Group focussed on need for overcoming the shortage of trainers by involving the industry and national level institutions such as IIT, IIM and universities.
It was decided that after incorporating the additional views shared by the member States today the final Report would be submitted to the Prime Minister within a fortnight.
The NITI Aayog Sub-Group on Skill Development was constituted as per the decision taken in the first meeting of the Governing Council of the NITI Aayog chaired by the Prime Minister on February 8, 2015.
The Sub-Group consists of Chief Ministers of Assam, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Odisha, Punjab, Puducherry, Tamil Nadu and Tripura.