Hunar : Vocational Education at Muslim Girl’s Doorstep
By: Er. Prabhat Kishore
Hunar Phase-II (Hunar-II)
After the success of Hunar-I project (Session 2008-09), a target was set to provide skill training to about 50,000 girls from Muslim, SC, ST and EBC communities in Hunar-II (Session 2010-11). It was decided that 50% of these girls would be from Muslim Community and the remaining 50% would be from SC/ST & EBC categories.
Keeping in mind huge target and limited number of studies centers of earlier 3 Muslim nodal agencies, it was planned to involve some more eminent NGOs also. But only 19 NGOs were found eligible. So, it was further decided to accredit government middle schools as study centers. Thus, there were 3 types of nodal agencies for Hunar-II project, namely (i) 3 old Muslim controlled agencies (ii) 19 NGOs and (iii) 826 Government Middle Schools.
In Hunar Phase-II, the role of NIOS was limited to only academic support (i.e. availability of reading materials ), for which an MOU was signed between BEPC and NIOS in December 2009. A “Hunar Cell” was constituted under BEPC to organize the Phase-II as well as future phases of Hunar programme in the state. This cell was disbanded in September 2011.
The courses selected for Hunar-II were as follows:- (1)322-Typing Hindi (Rs 1400/-, 1 Year), (2) 323-Typing English (Rs 1400/-, 1 Year), (3) 363-Fruit and Vegetable Preservation (Rs 3000/-, 1 Year), (4) 401-Gram Sakhi (Rs 3500/-, 1 Year), (5) 439-Early Childhood Care and Education (Rs 3000/-, 1 Year), (6) 608- Basic Computing (Rs 1200/-, 6 month), (7) 612-Beauty Culture (Rs 1000/-, 6 Month), and (7) 705-Cutting, Tailoring & Dress Making (Rs 2000/-, 6 month).
Since study centers of 3 Muslim Agencies were already in existence with a capacity of about 12,000-13,000 girls. So, 12252 girls were allotted to these agencies for training in Hunar-II phase-I. Of the rest 37794 girls, 3980 were allotted to 3 Muslim Agencies, 5067 to NGOs and the remaining 25747 to Government Schools for Hunar-II Phase-II. All the study centers were accredited by the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS). Some of the NGOs started providing training.
The classes and training of girls of Hunar-II Phase-I were commenced in June 2010 by the 3 Muslim agencies and their examination was conducted on 23rd June 2011 and 24th June 2011, in which 8593 girls passed and 3659 girls either not appeared or failed.
In Hunar-II, BEPC allotted 20% amount of course fee to NIOS for accreditation of study centres and monitoring support and 80% to the implementing nodal agencies for creating infrastructure and organizing training programme. After physical verification and reports from the districts, Rs 1,34,92,400/- were allotted to 3 nodal agencies and Rs 48,96,920/- to NIOS based on the number of girls trained. NIOS was also provided Examination fee per girl.
An amount of Rs 2,14,82,500/- from State Fund for Aujar to girls of Hunar-II phase-I had been transferred by BEPC to its concerned District Level Offices, which was distributed by organising functions to the pass out girls (Rs 2500/- per girl) through Account payee cheques/Draft or in their personal saving bank account opened at zero balance. It was also advised to invite incharge minister of the district as the chief guest in such functions.
On 25th June 2011, a meeting was held under the Chairmanship of Minister, the Human Resource Development, Government of Bihar, in which it was decided that rest 37794 girls of Hunar-II Phase-II would be trained through the newly established Bihar Board of Open Schooling & Examination (BBOSE) and NIOS will now provide only academic support.
Districts were instructed to complete the following preparatory activities before the commencement of the Hunar-II Phase-II training programme at the Study centres:- (1) Physical verification of girls, (2) Rescheduling of Study Centres (if necessary), (3) Identification of trainers and their orientation, (4) Availability of Study materials to the enrolled girls, (5) Procurement of necessary Equipment/Furniture/Raw materials etc. at study centres.
An MOU was signed between Bihar Education Project Council (BEPC) and Bihar Board of Open Schooling and Examination (BBOSE) for the training of girls of Hunar-II phase-II and future programmes. The Programme was rescheduled as per the funds available in the sub-activity “Learning through open schools” of NPEGEL.
In June-July 2011, forms were invited for enrollment in Hunar-III (Session 2011-12). The courses and its duration were as :- (i) Mushroom Production (1 year), (ii) Bee Keeping (6 month), (iii) Poultry Farming (1 year), (iv) Sericulture Production (1 year), (v) Vermi Composting (6 month), (vi) Preservation of Fruits & Vegetables (6 month), (vii) Beauty Culture (6 month), (viii) Swasthaya aur Saundarya (1 year), (ix) Cutting, Tailoring & Dress Making (1 year), (x) Tie & Dye (6 month), (xi) Gram Sakhi (1 year), (xii) Batik (6 month), (xiii) Production & packaging of processed food (1 year), (xiv) Basic Computing (1 year), (xv) Computer Literacy Programme (6 month), and (xvi) Basic Word Processing (1 year). But due to technical reasons, the training could not start at most of the centres.
After physical verification by the districts, around 17353 girls were found to be enrolled in Hunar-II Phase-II and Hunar-III. The Study centres were instructed to complete the prescribed hours of theoretical as well as practical classes. The state owned BBOSE was just established and so no timeline for completion of the trainings and holding examination was followed in this phase of Hunar programme, which resulted in drop out at large number of candidates. Only 10042 girls fill up the forms for final examination held by BBOSE in year 2013, out of which only 7477 pass out. In addition to 20% share of fund BBOSE was also provided Examination fee of Rs 150/- per girl.
In FY 2013-14, the annual budget for centrally sponsored scheme “NPEGEL” has been nullified by the Project Approval Board of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and MHRD, Government of India. As a result, it was not possible to continue the Hunar programme through NPEGEL. After Zero budget in NPEGEL programme, Rs 50000/- per block was proposed by BEPC under the innovative activity of Girls Education (GED) for Hunar; but it was not approved by the appraisal team and MHRD. In November 2013 Bihar Government launched the Hunar-IV programme covering 16 trades through its State Fund in collaboration with BBOSE. In this way the journey of Hunar continues to move forward.
(The author is a Technocrat based in Patna, Bihar. This is the concluding part of the article)
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