Jewellers to ink pact with labour dept to train 300 workers, data hinders use

Jaipur: After lakhs of migrant labourers boarded buses and booked berths in Shramik trains, the industry was watching in awe. The only relief was they did not need them immediately.
In the meantime, the focus fell on the Rajasthanis who were coming back to state in larger numbers than the outbound exodus.
Since then the government made the right noises of training them and deploying them in the state’s industries.
“The government has created RajKaushal portal giving some basic details of those unemployed and looking for a job. But skilling or reskilling them according to the demands of the industry still remains a puzzle,” said an industrialist.
In what may emerge as a template, the labour department is engaged with the gem and jewellery industry to create a pool of skilled people the manufacturing units need.
While labour secretary Neeraj K Pawan on Friday said that they have received a requirement of 300 workers from the gem and jewellery manufacturers, there are many loose ends yet to be tied up.
A manufacturing unit owner in Sitapura said that they don’t need RSLDC’s training partners for skilling the workers, who would be sourced from the Raj Kaushal portal. But RSLDC need to give training certificates, he said
“We want to train them in our factory and after that we will deploy them. But that’s why our association wants to sign an MoU with the labour department. We have already submitted a requirement of 300 workers. The department has asked for unit-wise requirements which also we will provide,” said the unit head.
At a webinar by FICCI-Rajasthan, Pawan said Raj Kaushal portal has now data of around 52 lakh labourers and 11 lakh industries and shared that 2,000 job opportunities have been uploaded by the industries.
The portal is not user-friendly now. People enrolled on the portal do not have mentions of skill sets, past experience or interest in sectors for working.
Pawan said, “Data cleansing and updation is going on. Around 4,000 labourers are also being considered for jobs and the portal has seen around 1.5 lakh visits till date.”
But many said unless the portal easy to source workers, it will be of no use even as the government wants large industries, industry associations and universities to directly enter into an understanding with RSLDC and impart skills training.