MEA's pre-departure orientation programme covered over 50,000 people

New Delhi: Over 50,000 people have been covered under the voluntary Pre-Departure Orientation Training (PDOT) programme for Indians migrating abroad for employment which was started by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) in January last year.

"PDOT programmes are aimed at enhancing soft skills of our migrant workers in terms of culture, language, tradition and local rules and regulations of the destination country, to sensitise them about pathways to safe and legal migration and various government programmes for their welfare and protection," an official statement said.

The PDOT is one of the several initiatives and mechanisms of MEA to ensure a safe, orderly, legal and humane migration process in the framework of our motto 'Surakshit Jaaye, Prashikshit Jaaye, Vishwas Ke Saath Jaaye' (go safe, trained and with confidence).

The MEA had rolled out one-day PDOT programmes initially at two centres each in Delhi and Mumbai in January last year.

Subsequently, the number of training centres have been increased to 10, out of which six of them are managed by National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) at Mumbai, Delhi, Lucknow and Kochi, according to the statement.

The remaining four PDOT centres at Jaipur, Hyderabad, Nizamabad and Karimnagar are managed by state government agencies of Rajasthan and Telangana respectively.

"As a part of our continued pro-active efforts in this direction, the ministry is taking further steps aimed at imparting PDOT to 5 lakh Indian emigrants going for overseas employment by 2022," the statement said.