Hardeep Singh Puri, Minister of Housing and Urban Affairs, has launched an innovative project National Initiative for Promoting Upskilling of Nirman workers (NIPUN), for training construction workers. It is an initiative of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) under the Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Urban Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NULM) to skill train more than 1 lakh construction workers through fresh skilling and upskilling programmes and provides them opportunities even in foreign countries. At an event, the Minister said that the National Urban Livelihoods Mission (NULM) has significantly reduced the vulnerability of urban poor households by providing upskilling training and employment opportunities to urban dwellers. He said that entrepreneurship had been encouraged and supported by giving urban dwellers access to self-employment and skilled wage employment opportunities. He added that it would enable Nirman workers to be more proficient and skilled to adopt future trends in the construction industry by increasing their capabilities and skills. Through the NIPUN project, the Ministry intends to create a future labour force for the construction industry which will push innovation and large-scale development in India. The National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC), under the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE), Government of India, will be the Implementation Partner for the NIPUN project. The project has been divided into three parts, including training through Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) at the construction sites, training through Fresh Skilling by Plumbing and Infrastructure Sector Skill Council (SSC) and International Placement through industries, builders and contractors. The Ministry said that onsite training would be provided to about 80,000 construction workers under RPL certification, co-branded with MoHUA, and about 14,000 workers will receive fresh skilling through plumbing and infrastructure SSC in trades. The courses are aligned with National Skills Qualifications Framework (NSQF) to be imparted at accredited and affiliated training centres. The project also envisaged that NSDC would place around 12,000 people in foreign countries, including Saudi Arabia, UAE and other Gulf countries. NSDC will be responsible to check the overall execution of training, monitoring and candidate tracking. It will provide Kaushal Bima, three-year accidental insurance with coverage of Rs 2 lakhs to the trainees. Secretary of Housing and Urban Affairs Manoj Joshi, Secretary of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Rajesh Aggarwal, Secretary of the Ministry of Labour and Employment Sunil Barthwal, and Additional Secretary of MoHUA Sanjay Kumar were also present at the event. Image Source Also read: MoHUA Secretary launches ‘NAREDCO MAHI’