Breaking the gender barrier in the male dominated field of welding, M.Girija, an artisan employed with the Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited, Tiruchi, has emerged as one of the top three performers in the national selection for the World Skills Competition 2015.
The three-day national selection at the Welding Research Institute (WRI) of the BHEL concluded here on Friday. Ms.Girija, the only woman contestant, Sachin Narale of Mahindra & Mahindra Limited, Pune, and G.D.Prathap of Sri Ramakrishnan Advanced Training Institute, Coimbatore, were awarded the highest scores by a jury of assessors.
Nine candidates from across the country representing five zones competed in the rigorous selection process which was being conducted by WRI for the first time. The top three would now undergo a final test at New Delhi and one of them would be selected to represent India at the World Skills Competitions to be held at Sao Paulo, Brazil, in August 2015, a BHEL press release said.
The competitors were tested on their ability to perform four tasks involving welding of plates, pipes, pressure joints, aluminium and stainless steel using different processes such as shielded metal arc welding, gas metal arc welding, gas tungsten arc welding, and flux cored arc welding in different positions, and joint configurations that required them to work for 10 to 12 hours on each of the three days. Speaking to The Hindu , Ms.Girija, an ITI certificate holder, said she was very happy to have been selected and would train hard to clear the final test in New Delhi.
