Students of Women’s Industrial Training Institute greet chief minister Nitish Kumar in Patna on Tuesday. Picture by Deepak Kumar

For over a hundred girls, it was a euphoric Tuesday as chief minister Nitish Kumar inaugurated the Women’s Industrial Training Institute (WITI) in Digha.

Constructed at a cost of Rs 6.93 crore, the institution aims to impart skill-development techniques to women to ensure their empowerment. WITI’s four-storeyed building is equipped with modern technology and imparts training on Hindi and English stenography, cutting and sewing, repair of radio and television, electronic system maintenance and many others.

“There is a huge scope in the field of skill development. The government will provide skill development training to 1 crore people in the next five years. It will help them double their income and eventually eradicate poverty,” said Nitish.

A trained labourer would earn not less than Rs 500 a day and even if s/he works for 24 days a month, s/he would earn Rs 12,000 monthly and would come above the poverty line, he added.

“One effective way for skill development was through industrial training institutions with the state government setting up a human resource development mission,” Nitish said.

There are 59 government ITIs and 459 non-government ITIs in the state. Compared to it, there are only 12 WITIs in Bihar but none of them matches the modern one built in Digha.

“Digha WITI is equipped with state-of-the-art technology, which is very important to impart the right kind of training to students to develop their skills. It is our duty to ensure that the youth of the state get the right training so that they can get remunerations according to their talent,” said labour resource minister Janardan Singh Sigriwal.

The labour department also provides scholarship of Rs 150 to the students of WITI every month.

Employment and training department director Ashok Kumar Mallick said: “We have a placement cell at the institute. The Digha campus will soon have a hostel also.”