LIDCOM Training Scheme (Sant Rohidas Leather Industries & Charmakar Development Corporation)

What is the LIDCOM Training Scheme?

LIDCOM Training Scheme is the skill-development programme of Sant Rohidas Leather Industries & Charmakar Development Corporation Ltd, the Maharashtra state corporation better known by its older name, the Leather Industries Development Corporation of Maharashtra (LIDCOM). The corporation was established on 1 May 1974 and works under the Social Justice & Special Assistance Department, Government of Maharashtra.

According to LIDCOM, the corporation works exclusively for the development of the leather industry in the state and for the upliftment of the Charmakar community, which LIDCOM describes as including Dhor, Chambhar, Holar and Mochi. The training scheme is the corporation's social-activity arm, and its stated purpose is to give community candidates the skills needed to start their own business or trade, or to get a job.

The scheme is funded by the Government of Maharashtra. It is a training benefit, not a cash transfer scheme, so the value to the candidate lies in the funded course seat rather than in a rupee payment.

What training does LIDCOM provide?

LIDCOM's training and innovation pages list these routes:

• Footwear designing through the Footwear Design & Development Institute (FDDI) at Fursatganj, Amethi, Uttar Pradesh. The flagship technical route for candidates who want to work in footwear design and manufacture.
• Training linked to the Central Footwear Training Institute (CFTI). CFTI was set up in July 1957 with Ford Foundation assistance and became an autonomous institution under the Ministry of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises on 14 January 1996. It trains in modern methods of footwear manufacturing.
• Leather Industry Training Institute at Kolhapur, approved by the state government and being set up jointly by LIDCOM and CFTI, Agra. LIDCOM's own page records that construction planning documents have been submitted to the Kolhapur Municipal Corporation for technical approval, so this institute is not yet operational.
• UPSC and MPSC coaching for community candidates preparing for civil services examinations.
• Smartness Quotient Booster Training Programme, a soft-skills and employability programme.

LIDCOM has also stated a plan to provide entrepreneurship training to 25,000 candidates of the Charmakar community.

Kolhapur matters in this scheme beyond the new institute; LIDCOM's commercial wing manufactures and sells Kolhapuri chappals, and the corporation runs an e-commerce portal and sales centres in Mumbai (Vashi and Bandra), Solapur, Dhule, Nanded, Jalgaon and at New Maharashtra Sadan in Delhi. A trainee in leather trades therefore has a state-run marketing channel to sell into after training.

Who is eligible for LIDCOM training?

You can apply if:

• You belong to the Scheduled Caste Charmakar community, Dhor, Chambhar, Holar or Mochi, with a caste certificate from the Maharashtra competent authority.
• You are a permanent resident of Maharashtra. LIDCOM states that its schemes are available only to permanent residents of the state.
• You meet the educational qualification set for the specific trade by the partner institute for that batch.

You cannot apply if:

• You are not from the Charmakar community. This is the sharpest limit on the scheme. A Scheduled Caste candidate from another sub-caste is not eligible here, and should approach the Mahatma Phule Backward Class Development Corporation or a MAHADBT skill scheme instead.
• You are not a resident of Maharashtra.
• You do not meet the course-specific qualification for the trade you are applying to.

LIDCOM has not published an age band or an income ceiling for the training scheme on its website. Do not assume one applies or does not apply; ask the district office when the batch is announced, because eligibility conditions can be set in the batch notice itself.

What documents are required?

How to apply for the LIDCOM Training Scheme

1. Contact the LIDCOM district office in your district, or the head office in Mumbai, and ask when the next training batch for your trade opens. LIDCOM does not run a public online application form for the training scheme, so this enquiry is the real starting point.
2. Ask for the batch notice in writing — the trade, the partner institute, the course duration, the qualification required, and whether any stipend, boarding or travel support is payable for that batch.
3. Collect and self-attest the documents, caste certificate showing the Charmakar community, Maharashtra residence proof, Aadhaar, educational certificates and photographs.
4. Submit the completed enrolment form at the LIDCOM office and keep the acknowledgement.
5. Attend the selection or counselling if the batch is oversubscribed, and confirm your seat at the partner institute.
6. Join the training on the notified date and complete the course, since partial attendance normally forfeits the seat and the certificate.

You can also use LIDCOM's "Enquiry Now" contact option on lidcom.in, or call 022-45240417, 022-22044186 or 022-22047157. LIDCOM's head office is at 45, Veer Nariman Marg, Bombay Life Building, 5th Floor, Fort, Mumbai 400 001, and its published helpline for Nagpur is 022-69068583.

What LIDCOM has not published: check before you rely on it

LIDCOM's official website does not publish, for the training scheme, the stipend amount, the course duration, the seat capacity per batch, the age limit, or an income ceiling. This guide deliberately does not state any of those figures, because third-party sites that quote them do not cite a LIDCOM notice. Confirm each of them with the district office against the batch notice before you plan around them.

What else can a LIDCOM trainee use?

LIDCOM's state government schemes give a trained candidate a way to set up on their own:

• 50 Percent Subsidy Scheme: loan up to Rs 50,000, with a subsidy of 50 percent of the loan capped at Rs 10,000, at bank interest rates.
• Margin Money Scheme, for projects needing Rs 50,001 to Rs 5,00,000, with a subsidy up to Rs 10,000, seed capital of 20 percent of project cost, and corporation interest at 4 percent a year.
• Gattai Stall Scheme, a 100 percent subsidised tin stall of 4 ft x 5 ft x 6.5 ft for roadside cobblers, costing Rs 16,367 plus Rs 500 erection charges, for beneficiaries certified by the Gram Panchayat.

A candidate who completes footwear training and then takes a Margin Money loan is following the route LIDCOM designed, and district officers are used to processing that sequence.

Where to raise a grievance

• LIDCOM district office for batch, seat and enrolment issues.
• Managing Director, LIDCOM, 45, Veer Nariman Marg, Bombay Life Building, 5th Floor, Fort, Mumbai 400 001 to phone 022-22044186.
• Social Justice & Special Assistance Department, Government of Maharashtra, which LIDCOM reports to, through sjsa.maharashtra.gov.in.

LIDCOM training is funded by the state. No agent can secure a seat for a fee, and any such demand should be reported to the LIDCOM head office.