Unorganised work force to get smart cards

The ministry of labour and employment will provide universal smart cards to workers in the unorganised sector in the country, besides skill development training, a central minister said Tuesday.

Addressing reporters here, Minister of State for Labour and Employment (independent charge) Bandaru Dattatreya said that 93 percent of the workers in the unorganised sector in the country are unskilled.

"For going ahead with the smart card, we will be running a huge awareness campaign and the state governments would also be involved in this. Once these cards are ready, the workers would be linked to various social welfare schemes. The migrant labourers in the states would benefit through this smart card," said Dattatreya.

He said that the Modi government's target is to see that the skilled work force in the country which at present numbers 2.8 lakh is raised to one crore, the same as it is in Japan.

For imparting skills to the workers, model centres would be set up across the country and a national university for vocational training would be established.

Shortage of skilled manpower is a serious problem faced by the western world. The government has signed an MoU with Australia and Germany and very shortly it will sign an MoU with the USA as well for supplying skilled labour, he said.

To start with, workers will be paid Rs 35 per hour upon joining a skill development programme.