Since 2015, Women Skill and Entrepreneurship Development Programme (WSEDP) was helping thousands of women to get ready-made garment training and become skillful.
WSEDP has 109 employees, and 80 percent of them were women.
Small Industries Development Board (SIDB) was managing the training centers with success. However, the SIDB has issued a notice saying “consequent upon completion of PC-1 period of the ADP project WSEDP on June 30, 2021.
Therefore, your services were no more required with effect from July 1, 2021. Therefore, this [letter] be treated as one-month prior notice.”
Ghazanfar Ali, SIDB managing director, told Dawn that 21 RGCs and three business development centers in Swat, Dera Ismail Khan, and Peshawar were closed due to the project’s conclusion. He further added that such projects were time-bound, and staff appointment was made on a contractual basis until the completion of the ‘project cycle.’
Most of the girls trained in making ready-made garments at those centers were uneducated and poor. Hence, the training helped them and others earn honorably instead of doing dishes in their neighborhoods, said Nasim Khan, Employees Association president.
Such centers are helpful to train the workers, especially women who could be a skilled force in garment units. Pakistan, being a textile-rich country, need skilled labor to maintain the quality of products.
Instead of closing such centers, the government should learn from Bangladesh, where their per capita income is becoming exceptionally higher than in Pakistan.
Such centers are preparing enormous workers to fulfill the industry’s demands.
