Centre in West Bengal offers free vocational courses for Bihar’s lepers
The centre has offered to conduct on-spot admission in any district of Bihar having more than five eligible students with leprosy, said an April 26 e-mail, seen by HT, from Vijay Patta, principal-cum-superintendent of the Leprosy Mission, Bankura, to Bihar’s SLO
The Leprosy Mission Skill Development Centre in West Bengal’s Bankura district, 212 km north-west of Kolkata, has offered free residential training to Bihar’s lepers and their children, in courses of electrician, diesel mechanic, welder and sewing technology, to make them self-employable, said state leprosy officer (SLO) Dr Vireshwar Prasad.
“Students affected with leprosy or students whose parents are affected with leprosy disability, and girl students with physical disability, in the age group between 15 and 40 years, are eligible for the free-of-cost Industrial Training Institute (ITI)’s residential National Council for Vocational Training (NCVT) with placement programme for people affected with leprosy,” said Dr Prasad.
The course for electricians is for two years for students who have passed class 10. The diesel mechanic, welding and sewing technology courses are of one-year duration. One had to be a matriculate for the diesel mechanic course and class 8 pass for welder and sewing technology courses.
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Besides offering training free of cost, the centre extends free board and lodging facilities to lepers or those whose parents are affected by leprosy, said the official.
The centre has offered to conduct on-spot admission in any district of Bihar having more than five eligible students with leprosy, said an April 26 e-mail, seen by HT, from Vijay Patta, principal-cum-superintendent of the Leprosy Mission, Bankura, to Bihar’s SLO.
The centre in West Bengal has also offered an incentive of ₹1,000 for volunteers, including accredited social health activists (ASHA) and health workers who refer eligible students for the programme.
The process for filling up and submission of admission has begun at the Bankura centre.
“Our admissions will continue till July and classes will commence after August 15,” said Nandita Mukherjee, instructor, sewing technology at the Leprosy Mission, Bankura Centre.
“Our centre, which is 24 years old, has been imparting vocational courses free of cost for those either directly afflicted with leprosy or students whose parents are affected by leprosy. For general category (non-leprosy) students, the course is chargeable– ₹ 20,000-course fee for boys and ₹16,000 for girls, besides ₹2,000 per month for the hostel with board and lodging facility,” said Mukherjee.
She said most of the students generally come from Muzaffarpur and Raxaul in Bihar and Dhanbad and Bokaro in Jharkhand.
“Last year we got four students from Bihar’s Muzaffarpur district,” said Mukherjee.
The centre further provides a government-recognised NCVT-ITI certificate from the ministry of skill development to students upon successful completion of the course.
District leprosy officers have been communicated about this programme and also asked to recommend names of eligible students interested in pursuing the course, said the official.
As many as 12,344 new cases of leprosy were detected in Bihar between April 2022 and February 2023.
