Under-equipped workforce cannot drive India
The National Mission for Skill Development launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday, has its task cut out. The options are clear: Either gainfully utilise the demographic dividend that India has or allow it to become a socio-economic burden. If the mission is successful, it will empower a vast number of the country's manpower with skills that can fetch them employment, either self or in organisations. And if it flounders, the price to be paid will not be limited to monetary terms but also have a larger bearing, since a growing mass of unemployed youth can be a source of social unrest. Minister of State for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Rajiv Pratap Rudy has pointed out that less than four per cent of the country's manpower is skilled. This compares poorly with nations such as China and South Korea, both of which are important manufacturing hubs. India lags far behind the global average of around 40 per cent of the total manpower being skilled. The connection between skilled manpower and manufacturing growth is obvious. Mr Modi has an ambitious aim to make India a global provider of skilled manpower.
He also wants the country to be a manufacturing power, and the Make in India programme is a contribution to that end. The mission plans to skill 24 lakh workers this year, and hopes to touch a figure of more than 40 crore by 2022. These are laudable goals, but to achieve them, there will have to be a focussed and sustained effort. It is good that there is now a ministry dedicated to this task. The governing council of the mission is led by the Prime Minister himself. A National Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Policy for 2015, has also been put in place. In addition, a loan scheme will make it easier for individuals to access financial help in the pursuit of technical skills under the policy. There had been attempts by earlier Governments to enhance the skill capabilities of the nation's workforce, but those did not adequately succeed because of both lack of focus at the ground level and effective supervision.
One example of this is the negligence towards the Industrial Training Institutes The ITIs are critical to generating a large body of skilled workforce. Yet, many of these institutes are languishing for want of attention. They are poorly staffed and many have bare minimum facilities in terms of workshops and laboratories. They have often received step-motherly treatment from officials who are besotted with the Indian Institutes of Technology, the National Institutes of Technology and the Indian Institutes of Information Technology. While the three institutions are important in terms of higher learning, the ITIs are where shop-level skills are imparted to those with a lower level of education. Since it is this section which comprises the vast majority of the workforce, no scheme at skill development can truly succeed without paying due attention here. A sense of pride and accomplishment needs to be injected among students opting for skill development courses, and here a change in society's mindset is crucial. For far too long, we have looked down upon those who pass out from the ITIs as some kind of educational rejects with low-paying jobs. This must change if India is to become a global human resource hub.