EDUCATING THE
WORKERS
Harsh
Bhal*
Education is the
foundation of a civil society. It is an instrument for providing
access to opportunity as well as for maintaining that competitive
edge which makes a nation prosperous. Whether it is industrial
development, health care or emergence of a knowledgeable society,
education is an essential input. Further, for sharing of information
and creating awareness of their rights and responsibilities for
an effective participation in the socio-economic development of
the country, a scheme for workers’ education was conceptualized.
Accordingly, the Central Board for Workers’ Education (CBWE),
Nagpur, in the Ministry of Labour, Government of India, was established
in 1958 to implement the scheme at national, regional, unit and
village levels. This massive task is being ensured since then
through a tripartite mechanism which the CBWE has adopted for
its functioning. The Board consists of representatives from central
organization of workers, employers, the Central and State governments
and educational institutions. Over the years, the Board’s programmes
have reflected the new orientation, direction and dimensions for
meeting the wider educational needs of the workers, trade unions
and managements. In order to adopt the pro-active approach towards
industrial and agricultural development, different training
programmes are organised to foster leadership development, industrial
health, safety and environment, industrial relations, trade unionism,
courses for rural workers, and the programmes to motivate workers
to combat social evils.
In order to create
a new work culture in the country’s socio-economic development,
the Board’s emphasis in the programmes has undergone a drastic
change. Initially, the focus was on industrial workers in the
organised sector. In 1971, the Estimates Committee of Parliament
of the 5th Lok Sabha recommended that CBWE should extend its activities
to agricultural workers as well. Further, in 1975, the Workers’
Education Review Committee enlarged its scope to cover the unorganised
and rural sectors. The Prime Minister, while inaugurating the
ILC held in April 2000, emphasised the need for continuous education
of workers in view of the revolution in information technology
in the emerging knowledge-based economy and also mentioned the
need for upgrading the CBWE into an institution of excellence.
The training programmes
for workers in the organized sector are conducted at three levels.
At the first level training is given to the candidates selected
through a country-wide advertisement for employment as education
officers of the Board. After a successful completion of training,
these education officers are posted at different regional directorates.
At the second level, workers from different establishments, sponsored
by the trade unions and released by the employers, are trained
at the regional directorates. The trained workers are called trainers.
At the third level, the trainers conduct classes for the rank
and file of workers in their respective establishments. Also,
personality development programmes of 3 weeks’ duration are conducted
for trade union activists to develop their leadership skills.
The regional directorates
also conduct short-term duration joint-educational programmes,
self-generation-fund programmes, need-based seminars, productivity
education seminars and quality of life programmes for workers
and their spouses.
Since 1977-78, the
Board has been organizing a number of programmes for workers in
the unorganized and rural sectors. The programmes for unorganised
sectors include camps for women workers, child labour and their
parents as also the weaker sections of the society. The Rural
Workers’ Education Programme of the CBWE initially started with
7 pilot projects during 1977-78. It has now become a regular and
continuing country-wide programme. The objectives of this programme
are to promote among the rural workers, critical awareness of
problems of their socio-economic environment and their privileges
and obligations as workers, as members of the village community
and as citizens; to educate the rural workers with a view to inculcating
self-confidence and a scientific attitude in them. Motivating
the rural workers to adopt family planning and combat social evils
is also one of its objectives.
The categories of
rural workers covered under Rural Workers’ Education Programme
are landless labourers, agricultural workers, marginal farmers,
fisheries labourers, tribal labourers, rural artisans, forest
labourers and the educated unemployed in the countryside.
New Initiatives
For creating awareness
about Krishi Shramik Samajik Suraksha Yojana which was launched
by the Ministry in July, 2001, camps are conducted by CBWE. During
the year 2001-02, 241 camps were held. Over 7267 agricultural
workers participated in these programmes. Between April-December,
2002, 232 camps were held in which 8801 agricultural workers participated.
The Board has
already been imparting basic knowledge on HIV/AIDS through its
training programmes. The ILO has come forward to give detailed
training on HIV/AIDS to the education officers (EOs) with a view
to integrating this subject in various training programmes of
the Board. A training need assessment was undertaken by the ILO
with a group of 10 EOs at the Regional Centre in Delhi in January,
2002. Based on this assessment, a framework of curriculum for
Training for Trainers (TOT) Programme for EOs was developed and
pre-tested in a training workshop conducted for EOs in February
2002, at the V.V.Giri National Labour Institute (VVGNLI). Thereafter,
four training programmes were held, one each in Delhi, Mumbai,
Bangalore and Kolkata in April, August and October 2002 in which
129 EOs were trained. Other TOT Programmes are being planned.
A manual on HIV/AIDS has also been prepared which will serve as
a good reference book for EOs and help them integrate HIV/AIDS
in the training programmes. A two-day sensitization programmes
on HIV/AIDS for the zonal and regional directors was also recently
held in Hyderabad and Jaipur in February and March 2003 respectively.
The ILO has also come forward to give two TOT programmes on women’s
empowerment.
Four zonal conferences
were organized mainly to discuss the administrative and financial
problems of the regional centres. These conferences were useful
in sorting out the problems of RDs.
The Board will
start new training programmes for the retrenched employees as
well as employees who have opted for the voluntary retirement
scheme (VRS).
Vision
In order to encompass
capacity building of workers in all respects to meet the challenges
of the country on account of globalisation and intense competition
from MNCs, the vision is to bring in flexibility to organize any
need-based programme deviating from the stereotypeones. Modalities
are being worked out for a broad categorization of the training
programmes to fit in any type of need-based programme under the
broad categories which will not only bring in the desired flexibility
but can also lead to development of specialized regional centres
for certain training programmes. To organize massive awareness
campaigns in the NCLP districts and also to conduct training programmes
for the project staff and teachers in the schools, the Board has
already been organizing 2-day programmes for the child labour
and their parents. Training programmes are also being organized
for the Panchayati Raj Institutions on a regular basis on relevant
subjects.
All important offices
involved in workers’ education are being connected for proper
co-ordination at different levels. (PIB Features)
*
DPR, PIB, New Delhi
