The day is not far when you would be able to book a plumber through a mobile app. Not only would this government-certified plumber be efficient, but he would also be polite, punctual and would clean up after himself. 

While the app is still in the making, the Indian Plumbing Skills Council (IPSC) has started training youths for the job on war footing and recently even held a state-level competition among plumbers  to test how much they have learnt. 

Held at Karigori Bhavan in New Town, the event allotted three hours to nine two-member teams to build a bathroom shower area, a water closet (WC) and floor trap fitment (for drainage). The contestants had been given a plywood wall to build all this against and immediately started drilling and hammering away while many other budding plumbers walked from unit to unit, watching the work in progress. 

“Plumbers are vital for the success of the Swachh Bharat mission and we hope to train 1.2 million plumbers by 2022,” said R.K. Somany, chairman IPSC, who had come down from New Delhi. The then state minister for technical education and training Ujjwal Biswas was also present. “After training, these youths will become employable and end consumers will benefit from their expertise.” 

IPSC is a body formed by the central government’s National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) that is a part of the Skill India initiative. They have created a syllabus for plumbers, divided into 10 levels of proficiency, and the same are being taught by 72 training partners pan India. In Bengal, there are nine such partners, who had each sent a team. Each proficiency level comprises 200 hours of training, including theory and practical lessons, after which students get a certificate and “skill card” from the government. The course is subsidised by the government too. 

“We want to train plumbers so well that in 2017 India can send representatives to the WorldSkills competition in Abu Dhabi,” said an upbeat Somany. “This is a worldwide contest that takes place every two years and though India has been sending entrants, we have never before sent anyone in the field of plumbing.” 

For that, the plumbers would have to be way more adept than they seem when they come to fix pipes in our houses. “They need to be technically sound, know their products in and out, be aesthetic in their work, use safety measures like wearing helmets and gloves. They also need soft skills in dealing with customers,” said Milind Shete, director of ISC who was a judge at the New Town event and followed the said criteria for judging. 

The winning team was from Globsyn’s training centre. “The society too needs to respect plumbers. They are the doctors of our houses, just like doctors are the plumbers of our body,” says Shete.

At present, one would have to contact the training partners to hire one of these trained plumbers. “That can be done though the NSDC website. But the process would be much simpler once the mobile app is created,” said Sandip Roy Choudhury, IPSC director and governing body member. “The training started last year and around 2,500 candidates have already got enrolled in this course from Bengal. But this number needs to multiply exponentially before the mobile app becomes feasible.” 

There are many budding plumbers waiting to serve. “I used to do a computer job before and I’m doing this plumbing course as a backup. I’ll pursue whichever one has a greater demand,” said 23-year-old Sheikh Arif Islam of Budge Budge. Sheikh Faria said his father was a plumber and that he had learnt the basics from him. “But it’s while pursuing this structured course that I realise how much more there is to learn,” he said. 

Both of them train at George Telegraph, which has branches at places like Barasat and Sealdah. “The eligibility of this course is just Class V, and while it is a win-win situation for youths, we still have a 10 to 20 per cent dropout rate. That’s because some come from such poor families that they are forced to quit and start earning right away,” said Subhabrata Seal of George Telegraph. 

To enrol for the course one needs to contact the training partners through the NSDC website.
 

Is institutional training needed for the local handymen?
Write to The Telegraph Salt Lake, 6 Prafulla Sarkar Street, Calcutta 700001 or email to saltlake@abpmail.com