50% of migrant workers returning to UP unskilled

New Delhi: Nearly half of the migrant workers returning to Uttar Pradesh from different parts of the country are unskilled. This has emerged from an analysis of skill mapping data being collected by the state government, which embarked on the exercise to offer jobs as per the skills of the workers coming back to their native places after easing of the lockdown restrictions.

There are almost 65 categories of skills provided by the labour department under which the workers are being classified. “We have completed mapping of 260,000 people coming over last two weeks in UP. Out of these 126,000 are unskilled labour force,” Sanjay Goyal, relief commissioner, UP, told ET. “These numbers would change as we are collecting more and more data. However, the current data set does provide some analysis.”

Among the skilled labour force, about 43,000 people or 16% were engaged in construction work in other states. Besides, there are about 7,500 painters, 4,000 carpenters and 3,000 tailors. There are drivers, plumber, electricians and other skill labourers too but their number is below 3,000. “We will pass the data to the labour department for further action,” said Goyal. “We have also developed an in-house app to register data of those who have already come to UP in the past and have gone to their respective places.”