Government is taking steps to promote other trades to tackle the dearth of skilled workers in other trades
India is soon to face a dearth of skilled carpenters, plumbers and trained men in areas of other skills, as a majority of youngsters in India are only training to become electricians and fitters.
According to the data provided by Ministry of Skill Development and Enterprise, around 12 lakh students graduate from 127 disciplines in Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) each year, and out of them, 11 lakh are only electricians and fitters. Rest of the 125 trades like plumbing, carpentry, motor mechanics have a combined strength of 1 lakh graduates.
Due to the huge demand of electrician courses, majority of ITIs are also offering only these courses. As per the data provided by National Council for Vocational Training, over 10,000 ITIs in India are providing the course of electricials and over 8,000 for fittings. Other skills like plumbing and carpentary are taught at very few institutes. A total of 415 institutes are offering courses for carpenters, 743 are training plumbers and only two institutes train lift mechanics. Talking about the disparity in numbers, Minister for Skill Development and Enterprise Rajiv Pratap Rudy at a recent National Skill Development Corporation event had pointed out that there is a need to promote other trades as well, otherwise India will become a country with only lectricians and fitters.
“We have a total 18 lakh ITI seats in the country, of which 11 lakh are just for electrician and fitter courses. Yet, we struggle to find a good electrician. There are several government schemes such as Pradhan Mantri Kushal Kendra(PMKK) to promote the skill development programmes. However, it alone will not help. We will have to focus on integration of subjects like computer and foreign languages in the current courses so students can get jobs,” Rudy said.
The government is now trying to promote other important trades through ITIs by giving grades to these institutes on the basis of new skills that they teach.
“We are aware that most of the students in ITIs are training as electricians and fitters but there are reasons for this. Most importantly the dignity which comes with a profession as an electrician does not happen in the case of a carpenter or a plumber, in a country like ours. Now we are also aware that if students do not train in other trades there will be a serious dearth of skilled people, which is why we are trying to promote the other trades and limit the number of seats in electrician course,” a senior official in the Ministry of Skill Development and Enterprise said. “Also, when a student is training as an electrician he knows that he has better chances of getting a government job as compared to any other trade, which is why more students chose this trade,” he added.
The government has plans to bring ITIs at par with other professional institutions in the country, for which they have started a grade system for ITIs. These grades will be given on the basis of the quality of teaching in the institute and the variety of trades that they offer.
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