Rajasthan Mission on Skill and Livelihoods

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Monthly Progress Report- November 2009

Planning and policy advocacy

Under the Rural Employment Exchange (REX) project, meetings were held on 13th November and 27th November, 2009 under the chairmanship of Sh. Ajit Kumar Singh, Principal Secretary, L & E for finalising REX project strategy and functional modalities. After modifications, the strategy proposes to have three major components, which will have different responsible partners:

Project Implementing Agency- for streamlining the database of employment exchanges (roughly 7,50,000 entries), assessment of candidates and counselling and skill training referrals.
Call Centre and Web Portal Set-up and management- Services of professional agency will be hired to set-up and manage the Call centre and Web Portal. An assessment tool for candidate assessment and re-assessment. All rights will be reserved to RMoL.
Placement Agency- RMoL will act as the placement cell for liaison and networking with various placement agencies for jobs to the registered candidates.

In view of the pressing need to rehabilitate beggars in Jaipur, a promising survey is being scheduled to develop understanding on beggars background, situation in which this activity is adopted and their social, physical, and economic implications. Potential agencies for conducting this study are being called through advertisements.

Skill Development

So far 778 skill training programmes have been approved for sanctioning to 276 training providers under the current financial year 2009-10. In principle 259 organizations have been issued the sanction letter for conducting 626 training programmes. Financial sanctions have been issued to 201 agencies for 257 programmes. Total 102 programmes have been completed so far. In total more than 1 lakh people have been given training under various initiatives of Government of Rajasthan through different departments/agencies viz; RUDA, RKCL, Commissionerate of Agriculture, DWCD, SGSY, RMoL etc.
A comprehensive note has been prepared on skill training programmes, conducted since inception of RMoL.
Leaflet and matter for advertisement was prepared on bringing awareness about skill training programmes among youth in the state. These are being distributed through Panchayat Samitis and newspapers.
It has been decided that the skill training programmes under BRGF would be sanctioned by RMoL. The fund for the training for the year 2009-10 is Rs. 3.75 crore.
An MoU has been signed with STAM Hyderabad for development of remaining part (65%) of the training course on ‘Household wiring and repair of domestic appliances’. A separate MoU has also been signed with STAM on development of two new courses in Hindi on Diesel Engine and Pump-set Mechanic and repair and rewinding of Electric Motor and Transformer Winding.

Initiatives for Livelihood Promotion

The pilot project for promotion of fisheries cluster in Banswara district was kicked off during the last week of November, 2009. The project is being implemented by Indian Grameen Services (IGS) and aims to enhance livelihoods of at least 100 fish farmers through provisions of inputs in conditioned environment. The department of Fisheries has been further collaborated for technical and financial assistance through their departmental provisions.
The pilot project for cluster based sheep breed improvement is progressing satisfactorily. The baseline survey was successfully conducted and farmers have been chosen through PRAs. The project is being executed in 29 villages of 18 Panchayats of 4 administrative blocks in the Bikaner district. Total 230 people have been included in to the project fold as against the initial target of 100 farmers. So far 34 SHGs have been formed which has 30 women SHGs and 4 men groups.
The baseline survey was conducted for assessing the financial literacy rate among the community in the project areas of Tonk district where the Financial Literacy Project is being implemented. The draft survey report has been submitted by CECOEDECON, the responsible partner. The initial findings show that the women associated with SHGs have higher level of financial literacy as compared to non group members in terms of awareness on financial dealings, avenues available, household budgeting, decision making and self control on income and expenditure.
Under the ‘Financial Literacy’ project, 42 training programmes were conducted in different places of Tonk district during the current month and 1680 participants have been trained and benefited so far during the month. Cumulatively 4035 participants have so far been trained under the project. Out of the total number, 1221 participants belong to minority community.
Under the livelihood intervention for Kanjar Community project, a seven member team of IFFDC, the implementing agency, is now placed at Jhalawar. Initial meetings for rapport building have been done in all the Kanjar Deras and the baseline assessment of their social, physical, natural, human and economic assets is going on. A blog in the name of “Kanjarcare.blogspot.com” has also been initiated for sharing with the larger groups. A meeting with District Collector and all the line departments is shortly to be convened.
Under the establishment of Rajasthan Institute for Security Education (RISE) project separate MoUs have been signed by RMoL on 21st November, 2009 with three agencies, i.e. SIS – 4 places (Bharatpur, Bikaner, Jodhpur and Udaipur), CAPSI – 2 places (Kota & Ajmer) and JEWCSL – 1 place (Jaipur). Under the purchase committee meeting held on 21st November, 2009 comprising of members from SIS, CAPSI, JEWCSL and RMoL, roles & responsibilities of each member have been drawn to purchase respective CAPEX items and get it approved through the purchase committee. The course curriculum of the RISE project has been finalized in consultation with implementing agencies and is in lines with PSAR Act (Private Security Agencies Regulation Act), 2005 and Rajasthan Security Act, 2006. The first training batch will start tentatively on 7th December, 2009 and other centres will start functioning tentatively from 20th and 25th December, 2009.
Under the ‘Establishment of Construction Academy’ project, all modalities of establishment of Construction Trade Training Centres in the premises of ITIs at divisional headquarters have been finalized and accordingly budget for the same to the tune of Rs. 24.19 lakh per ITI has been requested to be sanctioned. Interview for filling the post of Computant has been conducted on 30th November, 2009. MoU with NAC, Hyderabad for transfer of know-how and establishment and running of courses is shortly to be signed.
The draft report on ‘Perspective Plan for Fisheries Development of Rajasthan’ has been submitted by Central Institute for Fisheries Education (CIFE). The same is being reviewed for production of final report which is expected by the end of December, 2009.
Survey on status of migration in Aaspur block of Dungarpur has been completed in all the ten Panchayats under the ‘support services for migrant labour’ project. About 1000 migrants have been registered by now and have been offered services of identity card, legal counseling, skill training and placement etc. A collective of domestic workers has been formed at Gandhinagar destination in Gujarat.
Under the promotion of small and micro-enterprise development project, more than 30 micro-enterprises have so far been initiated in the project villages of Udaipur. In this connection, the Commissioner, Tribal Affair has been apprised of the whole project interventions for further convergence with various government schemes. A presentation on the project was made in Indian Institute of Forest management, Bhopal. NIFT, New Delhi, have been explored for their support in assessing the capacity of tribal women for development of handicrafts cluster in the project areas and a meeting with Sikshantar was organized for training of women for traditional food festival – Sristi Mela at IIM Ahmedabad. The initiative is part of Gramnidhi project being implemented by CEE with four grassroots partner NGOs and with support from Rajasthan Mission on Skill and Livelihoods.
Three mobile vans chassis have been purchased for facilitation of skill training programmes to enhance outreach in the rural areas. The process of fabrication as per the need has been initiated.
Under Computerization of RMoL project, MoU has been signed with STAM, Hyderabad for developing MIS for RMoL. The agency was selected out of 20 proposals submitted by different organizations.

Monitoring and Coordination

It has been decided that the project of Jal Bhagirathi Foundation under Heritage Council, GOR would be implemented through RMoL. UNDP has also advocated for this mechanism.
Department of Tribal Area Development has envisaged interest to utilize the expertise of RMoL for skill building of tribal population of Rajasthan.
A detailed meeting was conducted with the Director, Fisheries and other officials on exploring avenues under the departmental schemes on fisheries development in Banswara. The meeting held in view of the pilot project being initiated by RMoL recently. The officials showed keen interest in the project and further confirmed their commitments for all possible technical and financial help.
SC/ST Corporation has also decided to extend financial support to RMoL to facilitate the trainings of SC/ST youth in Rajasthan.
The New Concept Information Systems Pvt Ltd., the M & E agency posted by UNDP paid visit to RMoL office on 6th November, 2009 for finalization of baseline survey formats. The survey is being conducted in 7 high intensive project districts and 3 low intensive districts and will cover around 50 villages.
A visit was undertaken by RMoL officials to JAWAJA Artisans Alliance, Ajmer on 1st November, 2009 to take stock and overview of the cluster and assess their problems. The visit was reciprocated after artisans visit to RMoL for seeking help in rejuvenating the artisans cluster. It was understood that the artisans groups have serious issues in terms of improper management of accounts, decline in export orders, lack of design innovations, land related issues and burden of losses incurred in the last few years. They also have issues related to marketing, personal debts and lack of coverage under government schemes. The team has proposed for certain initiatives to be taken in this regard.

Initiatives at RMoL District Offices

During the month the ‘District Level Convergence Committee’ was formed in Tonk and Rajsamand districts and the District Managers were appointed as Member Secretaries with District Collectors as the Chairmen of the committee.
With the continuous efforts of the District Manager, RMoL, Tonk, to bring together SGSY and Dairy Union-Tonk, the dairy cooperatives have started submitting the applications for infrastructure support such as Bulk Milk Coolers, Solar Lights and AMCU etc under SGSY schemes. Eight proposals have already been sanctioned by Zila Parishad under this scheme and the process is expected to expedite in the coming months.
The District Manager, RMoL, Rajsamand had a meeting with the CEO Zila Parishad to discuss the need of convergence of various schemes. It was suggested that schemes like IAY, TSC, Rajiv Gandhi Gramin Vidhyutikarn can be converged to improve the status of various BPL families in a better way. CEO has promised to work out the detailed plan in this regard.
The District Manager, RMoL, Baran, participated in the Manpower Planning Committee Meeting held on Nov 5, 2009 to explore the options of convergence in the skill building training for the youth under the chairmanship of the District Collector, Baran.