The Human Resource Development initiative focuses on the empowerment of individuals through training and skill upgrading – with particular emphasis on those individuals from the marginalised segment of Indian society – leading to a trained, tested and certified individual who is job-ready for the Indian construction industry.

The Indian construction industry is the second largest employer after agriculture and has over 30 million workers of which 83 percent are unskilled. This results in lower earning potential, limited prospects for growth, lack of awareness regarding health, safety and environmental issues, indifferent working conditions and gender discrimination.

The construction Industry, being the second largest economic activity, also enjoys the stature of a substantial employment generating entity.  

With present capabilities to construct assets with a value of Rs. 340,000 crores annually, the Industry employs over 31 million citizens.  Almost 83 percent of this segment of populace is categorised as an unskilled work force, belonging to a disorganised sector.  Low value addition & lower productivity are some of the obvious resultants, leading to a diminished quality of life and no career growth prospects for the work force.

In order to improve the work performance of India's construction industry and to generate value-added employment opportunities, CIDC, as the apex organisation representing the Government and the construction Industry, had initiated a country-wide Human Resource Development initiative focused on developing a formidable work force to fructify various infrastructure development projects in the nation and also abroad.

Through a concerted effort and effective partnerships with central and provincial governments, multilateral funding agencies, donor organisations, NGOs and other like-minded institutes and individuals, CIDC has launched various nation-wide programmes for the training and welfare of construction workers. 

The CIDC proprietary model for supporting livelihoods programmes for weaker and marginalised sections of the Indian community includes empowerment of participants, especially women, members of socially challenged groups, such as Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribe (ST) and Other Backward Classes (OBC), unemployed youth, people living below the poverty line and jail convicts. 

The trained HR staff are employed with construction companies or become small entrepreneurs working on construction projects. The work provides them assured income and helps raise their self esteem, thus leading to a better economic and social profile. 

CIDC participates in various rural livelihood and poverty alleviation programmes in different provinces and states of India to achieve its objectives. 

The delivery of the programmes is aimed at improving social service, with special emphasis on gender equality and social inclusion.

The resultant impact is significant poverty reduction and improved livelihoods in the geographical catchment areas where the programmes are held, including enhanced consumption levels. 

The CIDC initiative has helped raise awareness of all stake-holders towards the problem of all inclusive and broad-based development and growth .As a result, some state governments have drafted policies stating a minimum percentage of all workforce employed on their projects needs to be trained, tested and certified through CIDC programmes..

With a pan India footprint, the programme is receiving increasing financial sponsorship from both corporate and development sectors. The sustainability of the programme lies in the fact that it has now spread to 17 states and has benefited over 200,000 citizens with a target to train, test and certify over 500,000 people in 2009-10.   

Later this month, Euroasia Construction catches up with Dr Swarup to find out more about CIDC and its latest initiatives.