Indian minister opens centre for workers

Imran Mojib, Special Correspondent

India’s Minister of State for External Affairs and Parliamentary Affairs V. Muraleedharan inaugurated the first-ever Upskilling and Training Centre for Indian blue-collar workers in the UAE at Delhi Private School (DPS), Jebel Ali, Dubai, on Wednesday.

The minister inaugurated the classes for Basic Arabic language, English Language, and Computer skills in the school premises.  He interacted with the workers, and expressed his happiness to see the interest of the workers, especially female workers, to enhance their skills and increase their employability in the host country.

On this occasion, Joint Secretary (Gulf) at the Ministry for External Affairs Vipul, Consul General of India in Dubai Dr Aman Puri and Chairman of DPS Society in the UAE Dinesh Kothari were present.

In his interaction with the fellow Indian workers, the minister said that the Indian government attached great value to the contribution of the blue-collar workers to the Indian economy, by way of remittances they send as their hard-earned money.

The minister also told the workers that he was aware of the problems faced by them in the tough times of Covid, and the Indian government had instructed all concerned states to do the needful and design programmes to help workers who are returning from abroad.

He also said that the Ministry of External Affairs was also working closely with the National Skill Development Mission under the Skill India Programme so that all labourers went well trained and educated to the foreign land.

On this occasion, Consul General Dr Aman Puri urged all employers to come forward to be part of this mission to tackle the post-Covid challenges by upskilling of the workforce which is a win-win situation for both workers and employers.

He also assured that the Consulate would continue to play the role of catalyst and facilitator in this endeavour, and support of all stakeholders was crucial to make this programme a grand success, and a role model for others to follow.

Dinesh Kothari praised the initiative to bring all stakeholders together and expressed confidence that this would create a replicate model for the welfare of the blue-collar worker, where academia (schools and universities) would partner with Industry, and design the courses to enhance the skills of workers.