India has successfully imparted soft skill training to close to 122,000 overseas job seekers – predominantly migrant workers to the Gulf countries – to familiarize them with the language, culture and traditions of their host countries, a federal government minister said.
“The initiative of Pre-Departure Orientation and Training (PDOT) Scheme has been successful,” India’s minister of state for external affairs, V Muraleedharan, told members of Rajya Sabha – the country’s Upper House of lawmakers.
The federal government started the PDOT program in 2018.
Although the PDOT Scheme is accessible to Indians going to any part of the world for employment, most of those trained are migrants to the GCC countries.
This is because the Gulf region attracts the largest number of Indians taking up employment abroad.
The scheme is aimed at enhancing the intended migrants’ understanding of local rules and regulations in the destination country and to sensitize migrant workers about pathways to safe and legal migration, the minister said.
Such training in soft skills enables Indians in the Gulf to be model residents in the countries where they live, he said.
PDOT training also makes Indian expatriates “aware of various government programmes for their welfare and protection,” the Minister added.
The PDOT training, started with four centres initially, is now available in 31 cities across India.
These include states like Kerala, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and West Bengal, which send large numbers of Indians to work abroad.
More than one centre also offers training in big cities such as New Delhi and Mumbai.
“In the aftermath of lockdowns imposed due to Covid-19, an online PDOT module has been introduced by the ministry of external affairs as another step towards ensuring safe and legal migration,” the minister said.
The International Labour Organization (ILO) recently hosted a consultation in New Delhi on labour migration from India under the theme “Decent Work for All,” where the PDOT scheme was one of the focus areas.
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