CENTRAL APPRENTICESHIP COUNCIL APPROVES RESERVATION FOR OBCs UNDER APPRENTICESHIP TRAINING SCHEME

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The Central Apprenticeship Council has recommended reservation for Other Backward Classes (OBCs) under Apprenticeship Training Scheme at par with reservation available for employment as per the policy of State Governments. This is for the first time that OBCs will have reservation for apprenticeship training. The recommendation was approved by the Central Apprenticeship Council (CAC) at its 29^th Meeting held under the Chairmanship of the Labour Minister Dr. Sahib Singh here on Wednesday (October 9, 2002). It also recommended that apprenticeship training scheme should be more flexible in terms of ratio of apprentices to skilled workers. To encourage participation of more women apprentices, the CAC recommended provision of incentives to establishments engaging larger number of women apprentices. As on June 30^th 2002, the number of women apprentices constituted mere 3.47 per cent with a little more than 5,500 as against 1.5 lakh seats available for apprentices. The Council also recommended further relaxation in physical standards for engagement of persons with disabilities. Presently this relaxation is available only for hearing impaired in 23 trades. The Council recommended to extend benefit for 21 more trades for hearing impaired, 40 trades for orthopaedically handicapped and 63 trades for visually impaired.

The Apprentices Act makes it mandatory for establishments to engage apprentices as per the quota fixed for them in relation to skilled workers employed by them. It was revealed during the meeting that a large number of establishments in the private sector eligible to be covered under the Apprentices Act were not actually covered. The Meeting was told that the Directorate General Employment & Training has already identified 1,771 such establishments. The State Apprenticeship Advisers have been informed about it and asked to survey such establishments for fixing quota for apprentices. Earlier inaugurating the Conference the Labour Minister Dr. Sahib Singh called for enforcement of Apprentices Act more forcefully and urged the State Apprenticeship Advisers not to hesitate in booking defaulting establishments.