Khadi Commission decided to provide skill training to manual scavengers, sweepers and sanitation staff

New Delhi : The Khadi Commission has decided to impart skill development training for scavengers and other sanitation workers in an effort to bring them to the mainstream.

The Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC), the nodal agency of Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Program (PMEGP), would provide training to manual scavengers, sweepers and other sanitation staff aged between 18 to 40 years, it said in a statement.

“National Safai Karmacharis Finance and Development Corporation (NSKFDC) had recently sanctioned Rs 48 lakh to organise employment-linked skill development training programme for 310 candidates – of which at least 40 percent would be women, belonging to the target group of safai karmacharis,” KVIC Chairman V K Saxena was quoted as saying.

After getting trained in different trades, including Khadi spinning, tailoring, embroidery and others, the safai karmacharis will get a wider canvass to lead their lives in the society in a dignified manner, he said.

“After the training, they will be linked with PMEGP where its nodal agency KVIC would provide them financial assistance, to establish them as entrepreneurs,” Saxena said.

NSKFDC has marked six trades– Khadi spinning, Agarbatti- candle-chalk making, tailoring/embroidery, footwear/leather goods, food/vegetable processing and soap/phenyl making– in which 310 safai karmacharis would be trained at KVIC training centres at Varanasi, Shamli, Barabanki and Balia in Uttar Pradesh.

The participants belonging to the safai karamchari category would also get a stipend of Rs 1,500 each per month for non-residential training and Rs 500 for the residential training, the release said, adding that, those in the manual scavengers category would get monthly stipend of Rs 3,000, directly by NSKFDC for the training period.

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