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Community Development through Polytechnics

Respected Prof. Saini, Chairman of the present Evaluation Committee, Govt of India, Prof U C
Kumar, NITTTR, Kolkata, Dr Saibal Mukhopadyay, Director, Technical Education, Govt of West
Bengal, other distinguished Professors and Directors, I represent Ramakrishna Mission Shilpamandira,
Belur Math, an NGO running a premier Polytechnic since 1954.
Elaborating on the wonderful talks given by Prof Saini and Director, Technical Education Dr
Saibal Mukhopadyay, I wish to point out a couple of issues that we at Ramakrishna Mission
Shilpamandira have learnt in our long run with technical education. We were a Govt aided Polytechnic till
2007, during which time, we had the Community Polytechnic Scheme also. Our erstwhile Principal, Rev
Swami Tattwajnanandaji, was of the opinion that Polytechnic College resources should not, and cannot,
be used for running the CP scheme. The reason being Diploma education is a separate job, while skill
development in the community is also a separate, dedicated job. Each needs sufficient dedication and
allocation of man power, time and resources. We cannot use the man power, time and resources meant for
one to double up for the other. If we do that, both will suffer. Well, at least, one will certainly suffer. We
cannot afford to lose focus in this way. Hence, what was done at Shilpamandira was that a separate unit
was started as the Community Polytechnic. The machinery was completely different from the ones used
for the Polytechnic. The rule is that a workshop cannot have two masters! The lecturers of the
Polytechnic, however, helped when required in various respects like up-skilling of the CP instructors,
setting the question papers and evaluating the answer sheets, setting up new equipment, etc. But, the
Polytechnic and the CP were kept separate right from the beginning. And that is how it is running right
now too. We have found this model to be really useful.
Regarding release of funds under the CP scheme, Director of Technical Education said that
during the CP scheme days, fund-release was smooth. Now, we found even that scheme was troublesome!
The problem we faced was the delay in releasing the funds from MHRD itself. We believe that money has
to be paid to the instructor by the end of the month, failing which, we lose our moral power over them to
demand efficiency. Whatever be the form the scheme takes, whatever be the form CDTP takes in the
future, kindly ensure that funds are released in a phased manner at least twice or more times in a year.
Then, timely payment to instructors can be done and the scheme will run smoothly.
We could further think of alternate methods of releasing funds. We could think of following the
PMKVY method where the funds are released directly to the trainees and the Training Partners of NSDC.
That way, we could entirely eliminate the cumbersome Governmental procedure of MHRD releasing the
funds to NITTTR, which then releases it to the DTET, which then releases it to the Principals of CDTPs
through the State Treasury. As explained by Director, Technical Education, this obviously has the
bottleneck of parking the unutilized funds in the case of CDTPs too.
Regarding aligning the CDTP courses with NSQF, I wish to inform this august assembly that we
at Shilpamandira Community Training Center have already done this successfully. It was quite an
exercise, but it was worth the effort. All our existing courses were mapped to different trades under at
least 7 different sector skill councils of NSDC. This enables the candidates to get a Pan-India certification
upon completion of training. Moreover, this aligning with NSDC will allow for up-skilling and scaling up
through their credit scheme for the candidates.

One other area where this Committee can give some thought is regarding gainful employment of
the candidates who are trained under the CDTP scheme. The Committee can make a recommendation that
the Govt of India should mandate all District & Panchayat authorities to allot development work only to
CDTP certificate holders. All development activity at the rural and block level should be linked to CDTP
scheme in some way. This will ensure that the trainees will get gainful employment and the effort spent in
CDTP Training will be beneficial to the society. Unless some such step is taken, our efforts will seem to
be shots in the dark.
Finally, regarding Prof Kumars query whether Ramakrishna Mission Shilpamandira will be
interested in taking up the CDTP Scheme now, I wish to inform the honorable members of this
Committee that we would feel honored to be associated with this Scheme, provided the Govt is ready to
make us Non-funded Training Partners. We do not want to avail funds from the Govt, while we would
like to be allowed to avail certification for our Trainees under the CDTP Scheme.
I thank Prof Saini for giving us an opportunity to participate in this Review Session and express
the views of Shilpamandiras learnings in Community Development Training for the last four decades.
Swami Vedatitananda
Correspondent
Ramakrishna Mission Shilpamandira
Computer Center & Community Training Center
Belur Math

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