 "Rajasthan govt to train NREGA, agricultural workers for better livelihoods")
The Rajasthan government is developing a plan to equip the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) and agricultural labourers with better skills in a bid to improve their livelihoods, a senior official said.
According to the official, many rural workers in Rajasthan primarily engage in agricultural work and take up NREGA jobs or travel to nearby urban areas and other states for work. However, most of them are unskilled and lack expertise beyond agriculture tasks, the official said.
According to the latest government figure, the state has over 11.31 million job card-holding families. While around 5.09 million families are currently engaged in work and over 70,000 families have completed 100 days of employment.
"To solve this problem, the government plans to provide skill training to these workers, and it will roll out a largescale initiative soon to address this issue," the official said. Preparations are underway, and the modalities are being finalised, the official added.
Under the scheme, one adult member from families who have completed at least 100 days of employment under the NREGA programme would be trained. Additionally, such individuals would share their skills with others in their villages, promoting local employment and reducing migration to urban areas.
Eligible workers would be trained in institutions such as the Deen Dayal Upadhyay Grameen Kaushalya Yojana, Rural Self-Employment Training Institutes, and Krishi Vigyan Kendras. The training would focus on helping workers increase their income by promoting local products from their areas. Information about these products would also be provided during the training.
The official highlighted that the government would assist workers with securing loans and raw materials to start their businesses. The training would include producing and selling local products such as handloom items, pickles, chutneys, jams, dairy products, honey, brooms, and other agricultural products.