Job creation is an outcome of strong willpower of individual, society and Government. The trio must work in tandem for setting the stage for employment generation. However, the sources of employment generation are always confined to primary (agriculture, pure mining, forest and fisheries) and secondary (industrialisation and other value addition to mining products) and services (banking. telecom, education, health, information technology and other skill based services) sectors.
The propensity of job creation from agriculture is far lower as compared to the capacity for job creation from industry on account of the ever-increasing land fragmentation, vagaries of monsoon and low private investment in the farm sector. Experiences show sustainable and holistic prosperity can be ushered through a good mix of the agriculture, industry and services sectors. Industrialisation has the highest capacity of encompassing skill diversities.
But industrialisation experiences in Odisha are always confronted by naysayers. So, most of the investors who have come to Odisha since liberalisation of Indian economy in 1991 have experienced multidimensional impediments. Growth in the service sector cannot sustain without parallel growth in industry and agriculture.
The investment climate in Odisha is vitiated by four obstacles -- unrealistic expectation of land price; unrealistic expectation of jobs before creation of work; grossly inadequate appreciation and effort by Government to facilitate logistics infrastructure like rail, road and ports; and lack of urgency among regulators to expedite project clearances. During the process of land acquisition, demand for permanent jobs in large numbers cannot be realistically met. People have to patiently wait for construction to commence and be willingness to work under contractors.
Industrial job gets paid for out of the income generated by the industry. Jobs cannot be paid for out of borrowings as soon as the project gets operational. This is the home truth and will remain so irrespective of the cacophony of demands from the day a project is announced.
let’s take JSPl Angul as a case study. JSPl has been conscious of the huge expectations generated among locals around its mega steel project in terms of employment and economic advancement as soon the project was announced. It is a natural phenomenon even before the land is parted with. JSPl tried a three-pronged strategy to create job opportunities for local people. The first step taken was to set up an ITI with an annual intake of around 200 students. The OP Jindal Community College has trained 2,720 youths from among the locals since inception in 2007. A large number of trained students have since been employed. The second step was to provide gainful engagement to aspirants through contractors at the project.
JSPl also encouraged many locals to partner with contractors and be suppliers/vendors to the project. By January 2014, out of the 9,297 contract workers, 5,807 are locals. At the peak of construction activity in 2012-13, 50% of over 20,000 contract workers were locals. The construction is almost complete for Phase-1 (capacity 1.5 MTPA steel and 900 MW power). The Phase-2 construction is due and depends on cooperation of PAFs from the Phase-2 land area to expedite construction and scale up engagement of more contract workers.
The third step was to fully honour the Odisha R&R Policy (II), the commitment under the MoU for setting up the plant, the commitment to the RPDAC to provide guaranteed regular jobs or cash in lieu thereof to all displaced families and create preferential jobs for other project-affected families linking with the capacity of the plant operations after commissioning.
JSPl has also met the State Government’s 10th HlCA guidelines in providing regular employment to locals. Besides, it has contributed significantly for creation of livelihoods among villagers. Under CSR activities, it has supported over 500 women through micro-enterprises like tailoring and stitching, making herbal body care and jute products, Agarbatti and low-cost sanitary napkin making, terracotta, food preservation and processing, etc. Income of women ranges from up to Rs 2,000. JSPl provides supports in terms of quality management and market linkage. The company is also promoting agriculture by introducing cost-effective technology like SRI method paddy cultivation, hybrid maize, poly house, etc. The company is too supporting farmers in value addition of their produces and market linkage.
With all this, the JSPl’s 6-MTPA steel project has improved significantly as illustrated in the NABCONS report on socioeconomic impact study of land acquisition. However, the company is still unable to meet the soaring demand for employment because of several bottlenecks in the project’s progress. Though the first phase of the steel project is almost complete, lack of water supply creates uncertainty for its future. land acquisition and physical possession for the second phase is another key factor in accommodating more people for livelihood.
Unrealistic demand irrespective of the job potentials and the legality of such demands may sometime result in mindless triggering of social blockades, according to industry watchers.