Set up in President Droupadi Murmu’s homeland, L&T Skill Hub is opening transformative pathways to opportunity and empowerment for Odisha’s youth, writes Bappaditya Paul
A faint yet radiant smile lit up their faces as Champabati and Jadunath, siblings in their early twenties, posed at the window of their brick-walled house under construction. Modest though the structure may appear to others, to them it is a source of unmatched pride.
The concrete structure, being built with the money sent home by their 22-year-old sister, Hiramoni Murmu, is a dream slowly turning into reality. That a young woman’s earnings could fund the construction of a family home is, in itself, an achievement rarely witnessed in this part of the world.
This heartwarming ground report is from Pahadpur village in Odisha’s Mayurbhanj district. It illustrates how skilling can become a powerful catalyst for real empowerment, particularly for rural women.
Pahadpur, a remote Adivasi village 275 km from Bhubaneswar, is a lush green region featuring vast swathes of paddy fields, densely forested hills and numerous small waterbodies. The monsoons here are heavy, and wild animals, especially elephants, are a nuisance.
Most families here own one or two sizeable paddy fields. Yet, the absence of crop diversification and limited access to markets means that they continue to live in economic vulnerability.
The village youth barely manage to study till 12th standard and end up working at small-time construction sites or manufacturing units in Baripada – the nearest town 115 km away. Such engagements are sporadic and seldom adequately remunerative.
Thus, young men mostly depend on occasional employment opportunities; women wait for marriage, and they eventually get trapped in a never-ending cycle of impoverishment.
But Hiramoni and an ever-growing number of young men and women in and around Pahadpur are now breaking that cycle, thanks to a new identity the village acquired in 2022, and with it many lasting benefits. That year, a bahu from the village, Droupadi Murmu, became the President of India.
An Adivasi herself, Ms Murmu had served as a minister in the Odisha government and as the Governor of neighbouring Jharkhand, before becoming India’s first tribal President.
EMPOWERMENT BEGETS EMPOWERMENT
Ever since becoming the President of India, Ms Murmu started exploring avenues for an all-round uplift of Pahadpur and its surroundings – not just in physical infrastructure, but holistic growth that can sustain even after her tenure at India’s highest constitutional office.
In early 2023, she requested L&T to explore setting up a training facility at Pahadpur for skilling the local youth. Having lived in this remote village, she knew it by heart how badly the youth here crave for meaningful employment.
Known for action rather than procrastination, L&T swiftly stepped in through its CSR arm, leveraging the expertise in skilling youth in various construction trades. The foundation for a skill training centre at Pahadpur was laid on 4 May 2023 on a five-acre plot donated by the President.
The skill training centre was set up in collaboration with SLS Trust that Ms Murmu had founded in the memory of her late husband Shyamcharan and two departed sons Laksman and Sippun. Her daughter, Itishree Murmu, heads the Trust.
In less than five months, the L&T Skill Hub was ready: a single-storeyed building housing an admin office and multiple classrooms, a welding training lab, open-sky practice yards and separate hostels for 140 boys and 100 girls.
“The layout was designed in such a way that it blends in with the topography, rather than something imposing. The idea was to ensure familiarity for the youth who are to get trained here”, says Meena Subrahmanyan, President – Prayas Trust, a social welfare body run by spouses of L&T employees.
Classes commenced on 29 September 2023 with batches of boys and girls drawn in for training in Bar-bending, Formwork, Scaffolding, Welding, Masonry, Plumbing and Pipe Fitting. The inauguration by President Murmu happened later, on 21 November.
“The duration of the courses ranges from 45 to 60 days and they are designed with a strong industry orientation to enhance employability. The programmes are offered completely free of cost, including on-campus lodging and boarding”, adds Ms Subrahmanyan.
Hiramoni underwent masonry training here in 2024 and subsequently secured placement at a refinery project that L&T is undertaking in Barmer, Rajasthan. She now earns around Rs 21,000 a month and sends most of it to her family at Bhandan, a village neighbouring Pahadpur.
“She is very happy there”, says her elder brother Jadunath. “She wants to continue working for at least another four-five years and marry only after that”. Jadunath clarifies that their father allowed Hiramoni to go to Rajasthan because the job was at an L&T site.
BRIDGING THE GAP
Since September 2023, the institute has imparted vocational training to as many as 2,125 youth, says Sanjay Mansingh, the Principal of L&T Skill Hub. The trainees hailed from different parts of Odisha and Jharkhand, but the majority of them were from Mayurbhanj district itself.
“Of all those trained, 1,330 have already been placed at various L&T projects in different parts of India; 179 of them are girls”, he says. “It’s a matter of pride for us that 12 boys and five girls have already been promoted to Frontline Supervisors”.
Candid about the comparatively lower number of women trainees, Mr Mansingh says that to draw in more females, the Skill Hub introduced a course on Data Entry in December 2024.
The Skill Hub has 14 trainers and 12 support staff, mostly drawn from Odisha. That one of the Demonstrators, Anil Kumar, was once himself a beneficiary of L&T’s skilling programme, is yet another testament to the far-reaching impact of such initiatives.
“I hail from a village named Budamara in Mayurbhanj district and my father used to work as a hawker selling potatoes. His earnings could barely fend for the family, making us live in abject poverty. I somehow completed matriculation from a public school and was wandering about, when in 2014 I learnt that L&T imparts vocational training free of cost at its Construction Skill Training Institute (CSTI) in Cuttack”, recalls Anil, now in his 30s.
Cuttack is about 250 km from Mayurbhanj. Anil travelled to CSTI Cuttack and got enrolled for a two-month residential course on bar-bending.
On completion of training, L&T posted him, on a third-party roll, at a luxury hotel project that it was constructing in Kolkata. “My first salary was Rs 7,000 a month, and you probably wouldn’t be able to fathom how much that was for a family living in penury”, he says.
Anil grew from strength to strength, getting posted to project sites in Jaipur and Cuttack, and with that grew his salary. In September 2023 he was posted at the Pahadpur Skill Hub as a Demonstrator in bar-bending.
“I, and many like me, are eternally grateful to L&T for running the skilling programmes through centres across India. It is because of such initiatives that people like us now stand a chance in life”, Anil says with genuine gratitude evident in his voice.
L&T Skill Hub puts in a lot of effort to identify and enrol such needy youth. The trainers, as well as the Principal, frequently undertake visits to the village panchayats across Odisha in batches of two or three and brief them about the courses and eligibility criteria – 18-34 years age, a minimum height of 145 cm for girls and 155 cm for boys, respectively, minimum weight of 45 kg and 50 kg, and at least an 8th standard education.
“Winning the confidence of the village panchayats is a must to ensure a steady flow of trainees. Another intake source for us is the past trainees who spread the word”, says Mr Mansingh.
Curiously, a sizeable number of youth who enrol here for training are diploma holders from government-run industrial training institutes (ITI). They do so because the training here leads to industrial placement.
“I completed a diploma in civil engineering from ITI Berhampur and was sitting idle at home. Then I came to know that L&T Skill Hub imparts free training leading to placement, so I came here”, says Banani Sendh, who hails from Baripada.
Unlike Banani, Bhumi Kumari Singh got enrolled for Bar-bending course soon after completing higher secondary studies. Daughter of a cab driver from Rairangpur, again in Mayurbhanj district, she learnt about the opportunity from an alumnus of the Skill Hub.
Same is the case with Puran Soren, who has enrolled for the Plumbing course, after having dropped out of the 10th standard due to poverty.
IN THE SPOTLIGHT
At the invitation of President Murmu, Prime Minister Narendra Modi paid a visit to L&T Skill Hub on 20 June. He spent about 30 minutes there, learning first-hand about the institute and its impact on the youth of the region. While interacting with the PM, the trainees and a few alumni spoke on how the skilling programme has significantly improved their socio-economic conditions.
Apart from the President of India connection, there are three more distinct reasons why the L&T Skill Hub is in the spotlight.
“First, this is the first co-ed skilling centre by L&T. Second, this is the first one set up in a remote location, and lastly, its sound placement rate of over 62%”, says Mabel Abraham, Head – CSR, L&T.
Taking a cue from this Skill Hub, L&T is progressively upgrading its skilling centres in different parts of India from male-only to co-ed institutes. “For new skilling centres, co-ed is the default norm now”, adds Prayas Trust President Ms Subrahmanyan.
L&T is spending around Rs 15 crore on the Skill Hub – including capital expenditure and the projected operational expenses till 2027.
But more important than this is the fact that L&T is facilitating opportunities for youth from a remote tribal region who otherwise wouldn’t have known what empowerment really means. This is an initiative that has a far-reaching multiplier effect.
As the sun sets over the paddy fields of Pahadpur, the silhouette of Hiramoni’s new house steadily taking shape beside an ageing mud house tells a story of transformation. It is a story of skills creating livelihoods, livelihoods creating confidence, and confidence creating change. In Mayurbhanj, empowerment is indeed begetting empowerment.
