Plumbing in the US is so efficient that you should have a tap on the US flag as its sign of efficiency. So says a character in the Booker-Award-winning The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai. Across the Atlantic, in the UK, the importance given to plumbing is similar. So you have Roy Newey, Group Board Director, A4e, UK, boasting about the fact that his grandfather, father and big brother have been into plumbing and are millionaires. The fact that Roy could not become a plumber is a matter of consternation in the Newey family, in which dining table discussions are around drains and toilets. Plumbing and plumbers are accorded a great importance in the US, UK and other developed countries perhaps due to the shortage of manpower, but because of the important role they play. “They are more important than a doctor, because while a doctor treats a patient when the disease sets in, a plumber treats people right before a disease
sets in.”
How crucial is the role of plumbing in maintaining hygiene and health of a nation can be gauged from what Sudhakaran Nair, resident, Indian Plumbing Association says: “Plumbing is a profession with direct relevance to the health and safety of the citizens. As high as 7.5 percent deaths in India are attributed to water and sanitation related causes. Eighty eight percent cases of diarrhea worldwide are due to unsafe water and inadequate sanitation and hygiene. The WHO has acknowledged that the SARS virus that caused havoc in the Asian countries few years back causing hundreds of deaths and billions of dollars in expenditures, were spread through inadequate plumbing. The plumber is the Nation’s health worker. His skill level or lack of it can have serious implications to the society at large.”
But is this sentiment visible in the civil works that we see all around? For all the realisation, not only do we see leaky roofs and shabby exteriors in housing localities where people can’t really afford to have the ultimate in plumbing, this author recently went to a language institute in the swanky institutional area adjacent to Lodhi Gardens in New Delhi and was appalled at the fowl smell there. I was told that while the building had come up very well, for some odd reason the plumbing had all gone wrong.
What has gone wrong? Is it that our age-old notions of hygiene stop us from giving a thought to this basic necessity of the day - the same attitude issue which is hindering the society from effectively implementing a garbage management system? Is there a lack of investment in training, technology and new equipment that leads to a pathetic state of plumbing? We talked to industry experts to understand the world of plumbing.
The training infrastructure
Sudhakaran Nair, as the President of Indian Plumbing Association, and as founder Sudhakaran Nair & Co. Pvt. Ltd. (ESSENCO), which has to its credit over 300 projects, is well placed to comment on the training infrastructure in the country. He describes the two-tier trained manpower in the country - the design and supervisory staff and the hands-on workmen. Both these groups, he says, learn their skills through experience of working in the industry over few years.
“The design and supervisory staff are those from other branches of engineering or even qualified individuals of any category with a desire to join the profession. They get trained by working in existing consulting and contracting companies and by studying codes and design guides published by various international plumbing organisations, apart from our own National Building Code and other BIS publications. Civil engineers would be the ideal choice to get trained as plumbing engineers since the subject is more related to what they learn at the college. However, all those who enter the plumbing profession are not necessarily civil engineers. Mechanical or environmental engineers or even graduates of science, commerce or history are practicing in the profession at various levels.”
He goes on to add, “The plumbers we have are mostly casual labourers who have learned the trade through personal experience or working with experienced plumbers. They start as assistant plumbers and graduate as plumbers in a few years. They just about possess the practical skills and certainly not the theoretical knowledge.”
He doesn’t think ITIs have a dent in the manpower availability, saying, “ITIs have been conducting two year courses for plumbers since many years but the skills imparted to them are grossly inadequate and the numbers of workmen produced are too small to make any impact on the industry.” That’s true, for even ITI insiders are not too happy about the state of affairs. We visited ITI Arab Ki Sarai, adjacent to the magnificent Humayun’s Tomb in new Delhi. The ITI is a centre of excellence, boasts of state-of-the-art training facilities, a beautiful, well-maintained campus and frequent visits from foreign delegates. But principal DPS Verma is not too happy about the way the plumbing course is running. “I am not satisfied. Infrastructure is not good, the training facility is not as per market requirements. Trainers are not available for this course.” He says that while there are very good opportunities in construction companies, five star hotels and overseas companies, people don’t have any inclination for it. While he says that availability of funds is not the problem, there’s the need to upgrade curriculum, as well as switch over to new equipment, especially corrosion-resistant plastic pipes. “The syllabus is outdated. No new element has been added. The training is being done on old pipes.”
Subhash Deshpande, Director, Plumbing Education and Training, IAPMO Plumbing Codes and Standards Private Limited (IAPMO India) Pune, echoes similar sentiments. He says, “There is a tremendous shortage of training infrastructure. It’s a very primitive type of infrastructure and not adequate in today’s environment. New material is coming to India but the workmanship is not good. Most of the workforce is coming without training, and learning at workplace, at someone else’s cost.” He also laments that plumbing is not taught at any engineering or architecture diploma/degree courses. For plumbers, there is some training in ITIs. In this regard, the Indian Plumbing Institute has done path-breaking work, by allying with College of Engineering, Pune, to set up a dedicated plumbing lab.
Job front
As disorganised as the training front is the employment front. Nair says that of the total volume of works, not more than 10 or 15 per cent are executed by what could be termed as the organised sector, employing consultants and experienced contractors. The rest of the works are undertaken by just about anyone. But even within that organised sector, there’s tremendous shortage of trained plumbers. BM Chauhan, Principal, ITI Bhavnagar, informs, “Generally eighty per cent of the passed out trainees are self-employed. Five to ten per cent get a chance to go abroad.” He informs that chemical industry and the various corporations are other major employers. The vicinity of Bhavnagar also provides employment opportunities in shipbuilding and ship-breaking industries.
When we sift through a well-maintained register of employers coming to ITI Arab Ki Sarai, we find that Reliance Associates, Jamnagar, Jindal PEX Tubes Pvt Ltd, Hindustan Sanitaryware and Savoir Fair Manufacturing are some of the recruiters. The fresh batch joins at the salary of Rs 4,500 to Rs 5,000. Chauhan of Bhavnagar also informs that semi-skilled plumbers are getting Rs 36,000 to Rs 72,000 and skilled plumbers can get more than Rs one lakh per annum.
Improvements in the sector
IPA, which represents all segments of the industry, has taken it upon itself to improve standards of the industry, including training. Besides the two national conferences and exhibitions each year, publication of India’s only plumbing magazine Indian Plumbing Today, establishment of a world class Plumbing Laboratory (for live demonstrations) in Pune, IPA has, In partnership with the International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials (IAPMO) of U.S.A, published the Uniform Plumbing Code-India (UPC-I). As Nair explains, the parent document, UPC, has been in publication for more than 80 years now and is adopted by most parts of the U.S. and several other countries. “UPC-I was formed after reviewing and editing the UPC by a Code Committee (CC) formed by IPA, to suit Indian requirements. The CC consists of the best known plumbing experts of India and the review process was completed over a period of eighteen months in numerous meetings.” The UPC will be revised and re-published every three years to keep pace with the latest developments in technology.
In the training area, The IPA and its training and education arm, Indian Institute of Plumbing (IIP) has again tied up with IAPMO to launch the ambitious Plumbing Education to Employment Programme (PEEP) across the nation.
According to Nair, “PEEP will be implemented in partnership with existing colleges, polytechnics and ITIs; several of whom have shown keen interest. IPA and IAPMO aim to launch PEEP by May, 2009. Prior to this, expert trainers from IAPMO will conduct ‘Train the Trainer’ programmes where faculty members of partnering institutions will receive training.”
PEEP will include multi-level education programmes for various categories, namely:
- Certified Plumbing Engineer - C.P.E.
- Certified Plumbing Supervisor - C.P.S.
- Certified Apprentice Plumber - C.A.P.
- Certified Master Plumber - C.M.P
Syllabus and training materials for PEEP will be provided by IAPMO shortly for ratification by IPA’s expert committee. The training and education programme will be based on UPC-I. Successful candidates will receive certificates issued jointly by IPA and IAPMO India.
As Indian workforce and market gets integrated with the world, higher hygiene standards will be required to be maintained. There will be no two options. It’s in the interest of Indian health and business that we invest time, energy and funds in training people for plumbing, so that this bottleneck is removed.
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