New Delhi, June 10: India has mooted an international skill development fund with active assistance from developed countries for rooting out poverty in developing countries. "We need to give the poor access to training opportunities at affordable costs. I will, therefore, suggest setting up of an international skill development fund," Labour Minister Sahib Singh Verma said at Geneva addressing the 91st session of International Labour Organisation.

The fund, under the aegis of ILO, could mobilise funds from the developed world to help the developing countries in their effort to enhancing skill development and thus rooting out poverty.
He said the skill development fund might also render technical assistance to complement the national efforts of a country to upgrade or train vast labour force.

Asking the developed world to be "more sensitive" to the needs of developing countries, the minister said, "increased participation in the WTO regime was touted as a means for poor countries to reduce poverty.

"Globalisation must bring clear and tangible benefits for the poorer countries, if we are to work out of poverty," Verma said.

He said India had consciously recognised poverty as a major issue and had been carrying out poverty alleviation measures for the last 50 years.
"We have succeeded in bringing down the poverty ratio to 26.1 per cent in 1999-2000 from as high as 54.9 per cent in 1973-74," he said, adding, "we proposed to reduce it further to 19 per cent by 2007." Bureau Report