Under MGNREGA, a “Mate” is a worksite supervisor and according to the norms there must be at least one mate for every 100 workers. The mate diverse responsibilities like supervision of worksite, recording daily attendance in muster roll, taking measurement at the end of the day, update entries in the job cards, help illiterate labourers in his/her group to learn to sign and to calculate wages earned, create awareness about rights and entitlements under the MGNREGA etc. To be able to efficiently serve these responsibilities, it is imperative that the mates go through an intensive training. Keeping this in mind and to increase the representation of women among mates, ASORD in collaboration with GIZ piloted a “Mate Training School” in Dhamtari district.
The mate training is conducted in these schools through several modules like basics of MGNREGA, Drainage line treatment, Horticulture block plantation and institutional mechanism. Since its inception, the school has been trying to improve its curriculum through feedbacks and special consultants to make the course more valuable for the Mates. Besides this, the schools is also playing an important role by “Training the Trainers” through development of master trainers for an effective scale up of the program across other districts in
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“We have learned a lot from the mate training school. It has empowered us, the women mates, by giving us better employment opportunities under MGNREGA” – Devki Sahu, Mate, Nari Village |